


Protect Them

by Endogeny



Category: Undertale (Video Game)
Genre: F/F, F/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-12-02
Updated: 2016-09-27
Packaged: 2018-05-04 12:46:45
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 8
Words: 25,006
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5334617
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Endogeny/pseuds/Endogeny
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>You often take care of your little cousin, Frisk, who grew up like a little sibling to you. They live in a foster home and so you often take them out on trips... One day they ask to go to Mt. Ebott, and you find yourself with Frisk in the Underground, scared and confused... But, you are filled with determination to protect them and find a way home, no matter how much danger you'll have to put yourself in... Along the way, you find good friends that help you. And perhaps even... Something more, with a certain comedic skeleton.<br/>NSFW content in the (far) future, probably. Fluff, cuteness. Feels.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Mt. Ebott

**Author's Note:**

> Howdy! This is my first Sans x Reader story, which I hope you will enjoy. Before you start reading, I must warn you that I haven’t written a Reader fanfiction in… A VERY long time… But I love Undertale, and I love Sans and all the other characters, so I’m confident that I’ll be dedicated to this one (especially if it gets kudos and comments).  
> Anyway, the reader is female. A gamer. Very loving, and puts others (especially Frisk and close friends) before herself..

It’s Spring. An unpredictable whirlwind of hot, cold, and in between. Yet, even in the weird weather of your hometown, flower buds appeared outside of your college dormitory just outside your window. You stare at them through it with an open book on your desk, its words having never even made it to your memory as you had been distracted by the small buds. When they blossom, they would no doubt be the beautiful golden flowers that bloomed there every year. They were similar to buttercups, but had six petals instead of five.. You’re not sure what they were called but they’re very pretty.

Ring… Ring…

Your phone sounded and so you were snapped out of your daze to answer it.

“Hello?”

“________! Hey sweetie, I’m so sorry to ask you this last minute, but could you maybe take Frisk to the park or something…? I, um, need to take care of some things in the house and I don’t want them just sitting in their room.” Frisk’s foster mother, Maryanne, asks in a hurried tone. It isn't the first time this has happened, so you aren't taken aback or surprised.

Frisk is your cousin, though granted you’re significantly older in your early twenties, you still grew up close to them and often babysat them since you were old enough to. Which was very often once you were indeed old enough… When Frisk was four their parents were in a severe car accident, both of them dying on impact. You don’t have a very large family, and they have no one really to take them in. You asked your parents, but they weren’t in a situation where they could afford taking Frisk in… Thus, they were sent to a foster home.

This also very obviously effected Frisk, despite the fact they were quite young when all of this happened… They’re a very reserved child, and often appear even slightly reclusive or shy at first, but in reality they’re very open and friendly if you take the time to talk to them. Though, you’d need a pen and a pad or know sign language to talk to them, as they’re mute. Technically they can speak, as they have a few times in the past, but they haven’t for a very long time and prefer sign language.

There is also a certain maturity about them that you know is because of their situation issues, something wise in them that is far beyond their years due to them living through some tough, adult issues. You wish that they didn’t have to have grown up so quickly, but at the same time they wouldn’t be the kid you love without it. To say that you haven’t grown to feel motherly towards them over the years you’ve watched them would be a lie, and you try and help them as much as you can with your busy college schedule, taking them places and babysitting. It made them smile, and it made you smile too… Especially considering you haven’t been satisfied with college thus far, you keep changing your major and are not sure what exactly you want to devote your entire life to.

“Sure, Mary, I’ll be there in a few.”

“Thank you so much!” Click.

You sigh lightly, just over the fact that you didn’t get any studying done, before you put away your things and get dressed to go get Frisk. You dress in a pair of black skinny jeans, paired with black converse and a simple blue and black T-shirt with your favorite quote on it, which you cover with a red jacket with black trim. Little skulls with black cats playing on them cover the jacket in a random pattern. You then head out to your car which you drive to Frisk’s house and on the way listen to music, while thinking of where you should take them.

You arrive at their apartment fairly quickly and walk up to the ornate looking door, knocking on the door only to be greeted by a happy Frisk. They wear a light magenta striped blue sweater, a couple sizes too big, with a simple pair of shorts and brown shoes. They hug your legs, as their head comes up to hips, though you are pretty short to be fair. You pet their head.

“Ready, buddy?” You ask, and they nod with a smile up at you.

“Take care you two!” Maryanne calls from inside the apartment, though her words are cheery, her tone is rushed and aggressive as she shuts the door before you could call back. You dismiss it and go back to your car with Frisk.

“So, where do you wanna go today?” You ask as you get inside the car. They think for a moment in the back seat before signing it to you, which you can see in your rearview mirror.

_“Mt. Ebott.”_ You raise an eyebrow at their answer. They’ve mentioned the mountain before, always commenting on the legend surrounding it, as it’s been a town favorite for far too many generations for there to be record of when it begun. You have to admit, the legend was pretty interesting and the mountain always was very regal looking, about half an hour away from the city and it is still impressive. Yet… Frisk had never once asked to visit it. You aren’t even sure that it’s still allowed, considering the six children that have gone missing down there in the past.

“Why there? I mean, I’m not even sure if it’s open to the public anymore.” Frisk just shrugs and signs.

_“I don’t know… I just really want to go. Please?”_ Frisk gives you a pleading puppy-eye expression. The expression eventually won you over and you sigh with a smile. Who were you to deny the kid what they want, especially a trip to a mountain?

“Okay kiddo, but I can’t promise anything, all right?” They relax in the back seat and smile understandingly. You turn on your car as well as the radio so that the two of you can listen to some music as you drive the half an hour through woods to the lone mountain. It stands ominously behind the large trees, that look like twigs in comparison. You aren’t exactly the one for physical activity, actually you quite like video games and several fandoms particularly more fun than things such as hiking up a huge mountain. But, if that’s what Frisk wants, that’s what Frisk wants. They may be quiet, but they can be pretty determined when they want to be. Finally, you arrive at the abandoned mountain. You’re kind of surprised to see gates put up around it.

“Oh… Um, sorry buddy, looks like we won’t be able to get any closer.” They sign back immediately, but also not too hurriedly.

_“Can we still walk around?”_ You think about this for a moment, before deciding that it can’t be that harmful and you did bring yourselves all the way out here, you should at least walk around a bit.

“Sure, I don’t see why not.” You unbuckle yourself and get outside of the car, only to find Frisk is already outside and walking towards the gate. You follow them and let them go where they want to, simply following close beside them. You don’t mind the walk as it beats a hike, as they began to walk the length of the metal chain-link fence, running their hand along it to rattle its metal.

You two are in a comfortable silence, and you have a small smile on your face because of it. … Until Frisk suddenly runs off.

“Frisk! Where are you going?” You ask, with a confused laugh as you follow them quickly. They have little, nimble movements with surprisingly fast legs. They also don’t respond to your question, even if they can’t sign to you while running they could at least give a hand signal or something.

Suddenly, they come up to a hole in the fence, by the looks of it it was clipped by bolt cutters… It’s more than enough room for Frisk, and this makes it easier for them to run through it.

“Frisk! Don’t go in there, it was fenced off for a reason!” You call out to them as you pick up the speed to catch them. Your confused amusement is quickly replaced by worry and panic. You hear them running through the overgrown, unattended underbrush and trees, and follow the best that you can, calling out their name. The greenery clings and swats at your arms and legs. If it wasn’t for your red, skull jacket then your arms most likely would be covered in scratches. You notice as you run that Frisk is running towards the mountain, and this makes you feel a deep feeling of trouble in the pit of your stomach.

“Frisk! Frisk stop!” The wind suddenly picks up, seemingly out of nowhere. It carries inaudible whispers into your ear. Horrible… Threatening whispers, meant to dissuade you and make you want to run the other direction. But you do not, you fill yourself with the will to find Frisk and bring them back. You then catch sight of them in their little striped overalls as they **run into a cave in the side of the mountain…**

“FRISK!” They pause momentarily to look over their shoulder at you, before they continue to run inside. You run after them, stumbling a bit as vines appear on the cave floor. You’re panicking and you can feel your heart drop as you see Frisk standing in front of a very large hole in the ground… It has to be at least twenty feet across.

“Frisk… Frisk be careful, sweetie, don’t go over there, come back over here.” You say as you stop and catch your breath, the sudden sprint unexpected and making both your legs and your lungs ache in protest. Frisk doesn’t look back and you feel your mind lurch when they take a step towards the hole. From where you’re looking you can see that their tiny foot is snagged by one of the vines. Time seems to slow down as you run towards them at top speed, as they plummet down into the depths of the hole and you dive at them to catch them. You don’t notice the vine that moved on its own accord to catch your leg, but misses by a fraction of an inch.

You feel yourself falling before your mind fully realizes it. You pull Frisk to your chest and wrap your arms around them tightly. You close your eyes as your body braces for the inevitable impact. The last thing you remember before your brain closes in on itself and your vision drowns in inky blackness is the static ringing in your ears.

It sounds like laughter.


	2. The Ruins

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> You and Frisk have now fallen into the Underground....

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you so much for those who read and gave kudos! Because of this, I decided I'd post the second chapter a day earlier than what I planned. Hope you like it!

Fuck. Everything hurts… Mostly your ribs, your left arm, and your back. Did you break something? Oh God, hopefully not… You struggle to open your eyes and the first thing you are met with is the petals of soft, golden flowers, and Frisk’s worried eyes.

“Frisk?” Your voice sounds strained and hoarse. They don’t answer you and only continue to look at you, obviously worried. You try and sit up, and you are able to, but it’s slow. Breathing hurts the left side of your ribs and you can tell that you must have landed on your left side, your ribs are now at the very least bruised. Your hips also hurt on the left side. “Are you hurt?” You ask them, and they sign back.

_“Small headache.”_ You’re glad that they don’t have anything worse and you put your left hand down to prop yourself up, but instantly gasp in pain and clutch your left arm to your chest. Definitely a break, you broke your left arm before when you were late in your teens and you were in a nasty fall, it might have broke again in the same place. Frisk immediately goes over to you and puts a hand on your right shoulder, concerned. You look over at them with a reassuring smile, though it’s through pain. They sign an apology, and you see in their eyes that they’re sincere. They didn’t mean for this to happen, of course they didn’t…

“It’s okay, it’ll heal.” You tell them, as you keep your arm to your chest and get up using your right hand instead this time. You look around, and up. A small oval of sunlight peered down at you, but you’re unsure of how far you two actually fell. However high it was, you’re glad that nothing more serious happened. You take Frisk’s hand with your good hand. “Don’t go running off again like that, okay?” They nod in a guilty response and stay by your side as you walk sorely down the hall to the side of the cave. There has to be a way out of here, right?

You come to two pillars and an arch at the end of the hallway, and this reassures you that there is some sort of structure in the cave. Why there is, you don’t know, but at least it’s something. You walk through them, and the sight you are met with surprises you. There is another stream of sunlight from above, which falls down on a small patch of grass with a single golden flower sprouting from its middle.

This wouldn’t have freaked you out or anything, except for the fact that the flower… has a face… Not one that is painted or drawn on, an actual… face. Two eyes, and a mouth, though no discernible nose. It is unnerving and confusing to your already muddled mind.

“Howdy!” You nearly jump out of your skin when the flower started talking and your grip on Frisk’s hand tightened. The flower continues to talk. “I’m Flowey, Flowey the Flower! Hmm… You two are new to the Underground, arent’tcha?” You’re speechless and don’t answer him, though he doesn’t give you any time to either. “Golly, you must be so confused.” Quite the understatement. “Someone ought to teach you how things work around here!” He says it in a sickly cheerful voice, but you can’t help but see these words as a possible threat. You get in front of Frisk, pulling him behind you. He narrows his eyes lightly, and looks up at you. “I was going to show them too, but I guess I can show you instead.” He says that barely above a whisper, and you can hardly hear it, but you do. “Ready? Here we go!”

“What the…” You whisper in confusion at what he means by that, when you feel a sudden, strong but somewhat comfortable warmth sprout from behind the sternum of your chest. You look down and see a (color) heart, about the size of a large softball, float out of your chest and hover just in front of you. You stare at it with wide, disbelieving eyes. It’s solid yet translucent at the same time, almost like glass, and it emits a fierce but soothing heat. Its color radiates like the light of a fire that transfixes your gaze. Underneath it is a yellow bar, with the words HP: 35/35 on the right side of it.

“See that heart? That is your soul, the very culmination of your being!” You register the words the flower told you, and for some reason you believe him. Frisk tightens their hold on your hand behind you, peeking out from behind your waist. “Your soul starts off weak, but can grow strong if you gain a lot of LV.” You tilt your head in confusion. LV? As in level, like video games? “What’s LV stand for? Why, LOVE, of course! You want some LOVE, don’t you?” From him, most likely not… Even if he’s being kind of helpful and informative on… Whatever the hell was going on, he still has a sinister sweetness about them.

“Don’t worry, I’ll share some with you!” Suddenly, white spinning oval shaped pellets appear almost out of nowhere and create a semi-circle around the flower. “Down here, LOVE is spread through… little white… ‘friendliness pellets’.” The pellet start coming towards you and you back up a little. “Move around! Get as many as you can!” You don’t go towards them and instead back up, but the pellets move too fast for you and they hit your soul.

A shock as if you were punched in the solar-plexus radiates throughout your being and almost drops you to your knees. It hurts even more so because of the fall you had and leaves you breathless. When they hit you, you also can see that your HP went down to 1/35, and you get a sinking feeling when thinking about what might happen if it hit zero. When you look back at the flower, its face has contorted into a sickly, overstretched grin with white eyes, void of pupils. Its once creepily cheery voice has now just turned creepy and terrifying.

“You idiot. In this world, it’s kill or BE killed. Why would ANYONE pass up an opportunity like this!?” Its grin fades into a twisted smile and its eyes turn black with small, unnaturally white pupils… A circle of pellets surrounds you and Frisk and you have an expression of pure horror. “Die.” A laugh that sounds startling familiar sounds throughout the cave walls as he laughs and the circle closes in around you. You hug Frisk and try to encircle them, perhaps the bullet-like pellets won’t hurt them if they hurt you first…

Suddenly, the pellets disappear, and a fireball the size of a watermelon shoots out, uprooting the flower and throwing him to the side. You look to see who did it and you see… A woman, you think. But, she has a goat-like head, along with ears and horns. Her eyes seem human, almost, and she has what you believe are fang-like canines. She is wearing a purple dress with an interesting white pattern on it, and her feet look actually more like one of a dog rather than a goat. She is also much more taller than you, which is most likely caused by her being taller than most women and you being shorter than most.

“What a terrible creature, torturing such poor, innocent youth…” She says, looking at where she threw Flowey with her… Fire ball. You look as well and see that the flower is gone, somehow… Before you look back up at the goat-woman. “Ah, do not be afraid, my children. I am Toriel, caretaker of the Ruins. I pass through this place every day to see if anyone has fallen down… You two are the first humans to come here in a long time though.” You smile up at her.

“Thank you… My name is _______ and this is Frisk.” You thank her and introduce yourselves, considering she did the same for herself.

“No need to thank me, my child. Now, let me heal your wounds.” She comes over, and though you are apprehensive of her, when you feel her magic mending you, you relax. However, you do note that you are not fully healed by her, your arm is still broken and you’re still duly sore, although significantly better than before. “I apologize, I can only heal so much of your wounds with my magic. Monsters are more attuned with their souls than humans are, so when I heal their souls their physical injuries heal completely as well… But do not worry, I am certain your wounds will heal themselves in no time. Come! I will guide you through the catacombs and take you to my home.” You smile softly and take Frisk’s hand before following the goat-woman.

“I’m sorry… Monsters? You’re a monster?” You ask timidly, not wanting to offend your rescuer.

“Yes, I am. We have lived in the Undergrounds here for many, many years.” She briefly explains as she leads you and Frisk into another room, with faded purple bricks and a dimly lightening, but well enough that you can see enough. Red leaves pile up in the front of what looks like what used to be a grand entrance, two small staircases leading up to a center door that is surrounded by ivy.

Toriel walks up the staircase and you follow her. In the next room, there are six, worn down looking rock buttons on the ground, and a switch next to a closed door. “Welcome to your new home, young ones.” Toriel says welcomingly, but the words make you scrunch up your eyebrows lightly. Sure, Toriel seems very nice for someone you have just met (and the first non-human person you’ve ever met), but you cannot by any means STAY here. Nevertheless, you don’t confront it, and let Toriel continue.

“Allow me to educate you in the operation of the Ruins.” Toriel then steps on the stones in a pattern and flips a switch on the wall next to the closed door and the door opens. “The Ruins are full of puzzles. Ancient fusions between diversions and door-keys. One must solve them to move from room to room. Please adjust yourself to the sight of them.” She explains, before she moves on to the next room. You look around, the initial shock of everything slowly melting into curiosity. You spot a sign next to the now open door and go over to it.

“Only the fearless may proceed. Brave ones, foolish ones. Both walk not the middle road.” You read out loud for Frisk who is still holding onto your hand. You find this interesting and then move on to the next room. Toriel guides you through more puzzles, all very elementary in nature, until she says that she must go do some things and you must stay in a room. She gives you a cellphone to reach her if you need to before going off. You stay in the room for a little while, sitting down and resting with Frisk before you decide to bring up something.

“Frisk… I need to ask… Why did you run away back at the mountain?” You ask softly. They look fidgety next to you, and troubled, but they sign to you.

_“It felt like I was being called. Felt important to go there.”_ They pause for a moment before continuing. _“And… That flower looked familiar to me.”_ You frown, troubled, and confused with them. Hopefully this was not anything serious… I mean, how could they have known that sadistic, nightmare-inducing flower? Perhaps they watched Little Shop of Horrors and they saw familiarity in that, but… You’re not sure. All you can do is hug them as reassuringly as you can.

“I won't let anything hurt you, okay? It might be a little… Intimidating and scary being here, but I promise you that we’ll find a way out and I’ll protect you.” They look up with big eyes when you release them from your hug, and they smile slightly.

_“Thank you.”_ They sign tenderly, and you nuzzle against their hair.

“Anything for you, kid. Now… I know Toriel said to stay here, but if the rest of the Ruins have puzzles like that I think we’ll be perfectly all right.” You, being a gamer, know a thing or two about puzzles. They silently agree and follow you into the next room. The first thing you see is a small white, frog looking creature. Though, in actuality on closer inspection, it was really a smaller creature wearing a hat that made it appear as if it was a frog. It doesn’t seem to harmful, but then again neither did the flower at first…

Frisk suddenly leaves your side and goes over to it with a smile, you’re wary at first, but once the “frog” starts to ribbit and talk to them in a friendly manner and Frisk eagerly signs to them (which surprisingly they seem to somehow understand) you relax. They return to your side after a minute or two.

_“The Froggit asked for us, when we get into a ‘fight’ with monsters, to spare them.”_ You think about this for a moment.

_“Why wouldn’t we? We aren’t trying to hurt anyone, and we are definitely not killers. Right?”_ You say with a little smile. Frisk doesn’t answer immediately, but eventually nods in agreement. You can sense that they’re still a little troubled, though that Froggit thing seemed to cheer them up a little. You look over at the door to your left and go over to it. There seems to be a basin full of wrapped candies and a sign saying “Take one.” You take one for yourself and then give one to Frisk, who takes it and pops it in their mouth. You keep yours for later and continue on with them.

Eventually, after falling in the leaves a few times through the ruining ground, running into a couple of monsters, and pushing a couple of rocks (one of which you had to ask politely to), you come across a… Ghost? It’s saying “Zzz” repeatedly, as if it’s pretending to sleep.

“Excuse me?” That doesn’t seem to get their attention, so you decide to try and touch them to get their attention, but the moment that you tap through their translucent body they fly up and you enter a “fight” with them, as your soul comes back out of your body again. Their attacks seem to be… Them crying? Interesting. You try to reassure them that it’s okay and that you’re not going to hurt them. That seems to help a little, but they still didn’t get out of your way, nor did they seem to be completely better. You look down at the leaves that they had been laying on.

“Hey, um.. What did the tree say to autumn? LEAF me alone.” You chuckle a bit at your joke, and they don’t seem to get it, but they chuckle with you anyway to be polite.

“Let me try… and show you something…” They began to cry magic tears again, but instead of falling downward, they went up and began to form a top-hat on top of his head. You smile a little bit at him. “I call it ‘dapper blook’, because I’m a Napstablook… Do you like it…?” He asks, and you grin at him.

“I think it makes you look very gentlemanly, Napstablook.”

“Oh no…” Your soul goes back into your body, the fight over. “I usually come to the Ruins because there’s nobody around… but today I met somebody nice… oh, I’m rambling again. I’ll get out of your way.” The ghost then disappears, and you walk forward again after a minute.

“They seemed nice.” You comment, and Frisk agrees. You’re then at a crossroads, between going to the left and going straight. Going straight seemed to lead to a single room so you went there first, and was met with two small but strong looking spider webs, one bigger than the other, and a sign that read, “Spider Bake Sale. All proceeds go to real spiders.” You look up from the sign and see Frisk putting seven golden coins into the smallest web, prompting purple spiders to take the coins and give him a donut in return. Frisk takes the donut and came back over to you with a small smile, holding it out to you.

_“For later.”_ They sign to you in explanation after you took the donut.

“Sounds good. Let’s check out the other route now.” You suggest, and you go back to go the left path, now the right from this perspective. Inside was a short hallway, with a sign advertising the Spider Bake Sale and more of the Froggits. Frisk stopped to talk to them quietly, quiet enough that you could not hear what they were saying, but you don’t mind. Soon after this, Toriel calls you and asks if you and Frisk prefer cinnamon or butterscotch. You’re a bit surprised and confused at the question, but after asking Frisk, you find out that you both prefer butterscotch so you tell her that. She thanks you and then you continue on your way.

You feel a bit guilty for not telling her that you’ve continued on from the room you were told to stay at, but at the same time, you’re an adult. She may be older than you, assuming age works the same for monsters and she looks her age, but you’re still an adult. … That plays video games, eats ramen noodles, and is completely confused on what they should do in life. … Adult nonetheless.

You work your way through the puzzles of the rooms ahead until you come to another crossroads, a left road with a patterned bunch of leaves, and a road straight ahead that led into another room. You opt try and go to the left, as the straight path doesn’t seem very significant, but Frisk runs off into the other room so you follow them. Before you can get to the next room though, they come back, and sign that there isn’t anything interesting over there, so you go back and go the other route.

You’re pleasantly surprised once you enter the next room. There is a large, leafless tree not too far from the doorway you went through and there is a quant, rustic home behind it. Toriel is walking from it and looks like she was going to call you, but then she notices you and Frisk are already here so she closes the phone and rushes over to you two.

“How did you get here, my children? Are you hurt?” She asks with worry in her voice.

“We’re okay, Toriel. We simply thought it wasn’t very productive to be sitting there, and the Ruins were not very dangerous. We’re perfectly fine.” You reassure her, though she still looks very troubled.

“I should not have left you alone for so long, forgive me. It was irresponsible to try to surprise you like this- Err… Well, I suppose I cannot hide it any longer. Come!” She leads you both into the lovely little house and you are immediately met with a delicious smell that comforts you. The first thing you notice is a staircase in front of the front door leading down to what you assume to be the basement, then there is a right hall leading off to where you believe are the bedrooms, and then the living room and kitchen to the left. “Smell that? Surprise! It is a butterscotch-cinnamon pie. I thought we might celebrate your arrival. I want you to have a nice time living here.”

These words makes your casual smile falter. Does she think that you two are going to… LIVE here? “So I will hold off on snail pie for tonight.” Toriel continues to speak. “Here, I have another surprise for you two.” She walks into the right hallway and Frisk follows her, prompting you to follow as well. “This is it… A room you two can share. I apologize for not having two beds, you are the first humans to come in a pair. But I hope you like it anyway, I can give you blankets and pillows to make it more comfortable or if you prefer to sleep on the floor.” She says, before she sniffs the air. “Is something burning…? Um, make yourself at home!” She then rushes off towards what you assume would be the kitchen.

Frisk watches her leave and then lets themselves into the room. It is a small room, and very obviously meant for a young child. They look around, inspecting everything. You glance around the room from the doorway, and figure you don’t mind sleeping on the floor while Frisk sleeps in the bed. You then look over towards where Toriel went and decide you need to talk to the monster woman, especially considering she thinks you two are going to live here. You find her in the kitchen, with a steaming hot pie on the kitchen counter.

“Um… Excuse me, Toriel? Do you need any help?” You offer kindly, seeming to startle her lightly, but not very much. She smiles at you over her shoulder.

“Oh, no need dear I can manage, but thank you.” She says, before taking off her oven mitts to let the pie cool down. You smile, though it is half forced and a little bit awkward.

“All right… I was… Hoping that perhaps we could talk? We didn’t exactly get the chance earlier.” You can see her eyes narrow, not with aggression or confusion, but with a certain sad familiarity.

“Of course. Here, let’s sit down, I’m sure you have questions.” She gestures for you two to sit down at the wooden table in the living room and you oblige. She smiles at you despite the fact you can see her tenseness.

“First of all, I really want to thank you, for everything. Without you… I’m not quite sure what would’ve happened if that flower got ahold of us.” You tell her sincerely. She quite literally saved your life, and your soul. Her smile broadens as she relaxes.

“It’s my pleasure, _________.” She suddenly looks as if she remembers something. “Oh yes, I nearly forgot. I think I have something that could help your arm.” She stands up and then walks off towards the rooms. You had still been holding your left arm close to your chest, and it’s still painful so you welcome any help she has. She comes back with a long, solid looking purple scarf and a semi-flat stick. “I think this will help you at least a little.” Toriel says as she helps you wrap it around your arm securely with the stick and to tie it around your neck.

“Oh, yeah this should work pretty good. Thank you.”

“You’re welcome, my child.” Toriel sits back down at the table with you.

“I was also wondering, if maybe you could better explain about… Monsters, and this place? I’ve heard of the legend, about the monster and the human war, but… I never thought any of it was true.” She relaxes a bit at this question, and nods understandingly.

“Ah, I see… Well as you already know, long ago, far too long for me to remember the date exactly, monsters used to live above ground alongside humans. There was a relative peace, though monsters are far more diverse looking than humans and sometimes intimidating to them, especially with our magical abilities, they accepted us. Then, war broke out between us… It was long, and the casualties were great, on both sides though more so on ours. We lost, in the end, and were placed in the Underground, kept here by a magical seal. Anyone can come in, but it’s far harder to get out.” Her words sink deep into you, and you have a feeling of dread.

“How hard is it to leave?” You need to leave. Frisk can’t live here.

“To break it, one would need… Seven human souls, or a force that strong. To pass it… A monster would need to absorb the soul of a human, or a human would need to absorb the soul of a very strong monster. As.. monsters souls do not tend to persist after death like human souls do.” You can tell that this makes her very troubled and uneasy. And you’d be lying if you didn’t have the nagging feeling that you might throw up out of horror.

“I’m sorry, young one, I don’t like speaking of it. The humans who have fallen down here before were all younger than you, around Frisk’s age or younger, I have not explained it before to them as they would not understand.” You nod, though your mind is running a mile a minute and it ends up being lazy motion. “Here, I’ll get you some pie. I’ll get a slice for Frisk as well.” She offers, as she stands up and goes back into the kitchen.

You sit there, and you try and rearrange your thoughts. It just… Doesn’t seem REAL… I mean, how could it? All of this seemed like just an elaborate plot in a movie, or a book. Just look at Alice in Wonderland, Gregor the Overlander, The Chronicles of Narnia. People have been falling into distant lands filled with monsters for years, but… It was never even considered to be real in any sense whatsoever. … Maybe you died in that fall, and this is some sort of weird afterlife. Or perhaps you’re in a coma, and your wild imagination was running rampant. Or… Possibly… This IS real.

And if it is… What then? If Toriel was not lying or keeping another method to herself, which you doubt very highly that she would, then you would need to kill two monsters for both you and Frisk to absorb and get passed the barrier. … You think back to what the Froggit said back in the beginnings of the Ruins and wonder if he knew that you’d need to make a choice later on or if he was simply being cautious because of the human and monster war. Maybe both. Still… You have a choice here to make. Was getting back home to the surface worth two monsters having to die? At your hands?

Porcelain clicks against the wooden table in front of you, bringing you out of your morally disturbing thoughts, and you look down to see a plate with a delicious looking pie slice on it and a fork. Toriel has another one in her hand for Frisk, and she is looking down at you with softness.

“Are you all right, my child?” She asks, and you sigh with a polite smile.

“Yes, sorry. I was just thinking…” She nods in an understanding, knowing way, and then she goes to give a slice to Frisk. You look down at the piece of pie on the table. Toriel must have gone through this before… Humans coming down here, her taking them in. What happened to them? You ask yourself this but you already know the answer. Maybe what… “Flowey” had said about “kill or be killed” was, to a certain degree, true in this world.

But still… There must be a way to go home without resorting to violence on either sides. You have to believe that. You’re not a killer, you doubt that you could bring yourself to hurt one of those Froggits or something as sweet and innocent as that ghost. And even if someone was trying to kill you… You don’t know that you would have the will, even then. You’re not that kind of person… Perhaps if it was Frisk being threatened it would be different, but you don’t want to think about it coming to that. You hear Toriel walk back from the hallway.

“They must have been fairly tired, they decided to take a nap on the bed.” She says as she sits down next to you again. You nod and take a bite out of the pie, finally. You smile at the sudden, pleasant taste in your mouth.

“This is really good, thank you for making it for us.”

“You’re welcome. Now… Do you have any more questions…?” She asks, obviously sensing that you do. You nod slowly though you don’t look at her yet.

“I… I do…” You look up into her eyes. “Are you… Wanting us to stay here with you? As in, forever?” She smiles, but it is strained.

“Yes, I think that would be for the best. Don’t worry, I think you and Frisk will be happy here. I want to share all my books with you, and show you two my favorite bug-hunting spot, I think Frisk will like that. I’ve even set up a curriculum for them so they will not miss out on any schooling.” She chuckles a little bit to herself, though your expression is one of sympathy and guilt knowing that you cannot stay here with her. “This may come as a surprise, but I used to want to be a school teacher at one point.” Your smile broadens even though it’s sad.

“You seem like you would be really great with kids.” You comment, truthfully as she seems like the type.

“I… Suppose so.” Her expression saddens as well. You sigh again.

“Toriel… I don’t doubt that you wouldn’t be able to give us a good, comfortable life here. Your home is lovely and it feels like a home, and if your cooking even half resembles the deliciousness of this pie then I know you’d have no problem serving amazing meals, but…” You trail off before continuing. “We can’t stay here. The most I see us staying here is two days, to better understand the rest of the Underground and how we’ll be able to leave. We appreciate your hospitality, and we owe you a lot considering you saved us from being killed by that flower, but Frisk and I have a life above ground… We have to at the very least try to get back.” You try and explain to her, and every word you say looks like it pains her and makes her face turn hard and contemplative. She stands up abruptly and walks off down the hall.

“… Sorry, I have to do something. Stay here.” She turns to the left and goes down the staircase leading to the basement, leaving you in the living room. The look on her face makes you worry and after she goes down you stand up and follow her.

“Toriel, wait.” You catch up with her quickly in the darkly lit hallway underneath the house, but she doesn’t stop walking, striding with a purpose. It’s significantly colder than upstairs and makes you glad that you have your skull jacket even though a shiver goes through you anyway.

“You wish to know how to return ‘home’, do you not? Ahead of us lies the ends of the Ruins. A one-way exit to the rest of the Underground… I am going to destroy it. No one will ever be able to leave again… Now, be a good girl and go upstairs.” She continues to walk, dismissive of you following her persistently.

“No, Toriel. Please, I know that you think we’ll be happier here, but you must understand that we need to try to go back home.” You tell her, as kind but also as stern as you can.

“Every human that falls down here meets the same fate, I have seen it again and again. They come. They leave. They die. You naive child… If you leave the Ruins… They… Asgore… Will kill you. I am only protecting you, do you understand? … Go to your room.” She picks up the pace of her walking but you just pick up your own as well. “Do not try to stop me. This is your final warning.” All softness in her voice has long since faded and you wonder if it had all been a ruse. You follow her still, disregarding the fact that her last sentence could be a threat. You follow her into the room the hallway led to, which contains a door and nothing else. She stands in front of it.

“Toriel…”

“You want to leave so badly? Hmph… You’re just like the others…” Suddenly, you hear the pitter patter of feet on the ground and turn to see Frisk walking down the hallway towards you, looking worried and confused. Toriel notices as well and pauses what she’s saying until Frisk has entered the room. She then looks back towards you. “There is only one solution to this. Prove yourself. Prove to me you are strong enough to survive, and to protect Frisk…” She turns, and your (color) soul presents itself for the fight. You stand your ground…

“I refuse. I refuse to fight against you.” You tell her immediately. She’s silent but you can faintly hear her take in a deep breath, as she conjures up a multitude of balls of fire and throws them at you in a sequence of patterns. You’re not able to dodge all of them, and the searing pain that it causes the very essence of your being shocks you… Your broken arm aches as you tense it and press it to your chest, the scarf and stick still holding it in place with soft security. Still, you look at her sternly.

“I refuse to fight you and I refuse to go back upstairs.” You can see her face twitch a little when you’re hit with her magical attacks, but she conjures up more. You’re able to dodge them all this time, even though you are nicked slightly by a couple.

“I won’t hurt you, Toriel. I won’t fight you.” She frowns deeply and throws another magical attack at you. This time you’re hit two times, and fall to one of your knees, slightly out of breath. You’re able to catch yourself with your right hand, but your elbow is shocked by the sudden drop, not to mention your knees. Dodging takes it out of you, you suppose. You stand back up and look her square in the eye.

“I’m sorry… I truly am. But I refuse.” Her frown gets deeper.

“What are you doing…?” She mumbles, as she attacks you again. You dodge most of them, but get hit with the last fireball directly in your left shoulder, making you cry out. “Attack or run away!”

“No.” You swallow dryly.

“What are you proving this way?” She attacks you again. “Fight me or leave!” She attacks again and the number on your HP is going down one at a time… “Stop it.” She fires at you again and with another hit, you can hear Frisk whine softly behind you. It hurts, but you won’t hurt her back. She won’t… Kill you… Will she? “Stop looking at me that way.” Toriel tells you, her once stern face softening. She attacks you again and you thankfully dodge all the fireballs. “Go away!” She attacks you again and this time you’re hit again, and the number of your HP gets lower… You see a look of concern in her eyes for a second but she remains silent.

“I won’t fight you. You’re a good person, Toriel…” She attacks you again, but the fireballs avoid you this time instead of trying to hit you. You look as though you’re getting through to her so you keep going. “You’re only trying to protect us and I appreciate that. I appreciate it so much… Especially considering you already saved our lives…” Her eyes sadden and she looks over at you.

“I know you want to go home, but… But please… Go upstairs now.” You say nothing and look at her with a sincere, sympathetic smile. She smiles back, but it’s a sad smile. “I promise I will take good care of you here. I know we do not have much, but… We can have a good life here.” You sigh. It’s hard to refuse that, but… You can’t be trapped here, forever.

“I’m sorry… I wish that we could accept…”

“Then why are you making this so difficult? … Please, go upstairs, we can forget this ever happened and I’ll make tea for you.”  

“No… Toriel… Please…” She looks like she is going to cry, but at the same time it looks as if she is unable to. As if she’s cried too much to cry anymore. She chuckles softly to herself and you can hear the hopelessness inside of it.

“Pathetic, is it not? I cannot save anyone that comes through here… No matter how hard I may try.” Frisk walks up behind you. You almost forgot that the child was there, and they hold onto your hand. Toriel draws a shaky breath. “No, I understand. You would just be unhappy trapped down here. The Ruins are very small once you get used to them… It would not be right for Frisk to grow up in a place like this. My expectations… My loneliness… My fear… For you both, I will put them aside.”

She uses her healing powers to heal your soul before it goes back into your chest. You feel warm, and physically better, but at the same time you feel saddened for Toriel, who turns to the purple door leading to the rest of the Underground. “If you truly wish to leave the Ruins, I will not stop you… However, when you leave, please do not come back… I hope you understand.”

You don’t understand this, but… You don’t feel you should ask either. She’s been through so much, maybe she just doesn’t want to lose anyone all over again if you're just going to keep leaving. She turns around and hugs you and Frisk, her pearl white fur slightly damp around her eyes. “Goodbye, my children.” She releases you both before slowly returning down the hall.

She looks over her shoulder once at you before leaving, not looking back a second time.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sans is introduced in the next chapter~ Once again if you have any preference on if he speaks with his dialect in the game (all lowercase except for singular I's) or if you prefer regular grammar like how the Reader speaks, please tell me because I don't mind either. Otherwise I will just stick with regular grammar.


	3. Skeleton Brothers

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> You meet two ... interesting ... skeletons, that will hopefully help you.

You hold Frisk’s hand tightly and look down at them with a reassuring smile. They snuggle up against your hip and you go through the large purple door. It opens up to a very long, and very cold corridor. You shiver slightly, but press on and get to another door eventually. You go through it, and then you instantly freeze in your steps… In the center of the significantly darker room, there is a beam of light shining down on a patch of grass… A certain smiling flower in the middle of it.

“Clever. Verrrryyy clever. You think you’re really smart, don’t you? In this world, it’s kill or be killed. So you were able to play by your own rules. You spared the life of a single person. Hee hee hee… I bet you feel really great. You didn’t kill anybody this time. … But what will you do if you meet a relentless killer?” Your eyes narrow in distain, and you scowl. “You’ll die and you’ll die and you’ll die. Until you tire of trying. What will you do then?” Its smile twists into one of your nightmares as you feel rising fear and anger well up inside of you. “Will you kill out of frustration? Or will you-”

You let go of Frisk’s hand and march up to the flower and proceed to try and stomp on it with your foot, without a single word or curse, though you may be thinking many in your mind. The flower looks genuinely surprised as it disappears underground and comes back up a couple feet from you. “So violent, already? Perhaps you will kill out of-” You try and stomp on it again with a frustrated frown. It disappears and reappears with a look of annoyance. “You should learn to listen, stupid. I WAS going to give you valuable information, but now I’ll just leave you to your own defenses. Maybe I’ll get lucky and you’ll die without making an even bigger idiot out of yourself.” He then begins to laugh maniacally before he disappears underneath the earth. … You crouch down to Frisk and hug them.

“I won’t let anything hurt you. I’ll protect you. Don’t listen to him and let him make you scared, okay?” You whisper to them and Frisk hugs you back, nodding into your shoulder to tell you that they understand. “Good… Now, let’s get going.” You straighten back up and continue to walk. The room is not very big and the exit door is easy to get to. It’s… Almost frozen shut, and it’s hard to push open, but you’re able to and the coldness hits you like a sheet of ice cubes. 

You shiver and put your hood over your head as you take hold of Frisk’s hand again. “You okay, Frisk? It’s kind of chilly, if you ask me.” You joke with almost chattering teeth, though you’re kind of actually worried about them, considering they have slightly less covering than you do. They chuckle slightly up at you and you relax a bit as you walk onward into the semi-open air. Snow seemed to cover all you could visually see, and on both sides of you there is a thickly dense forest. It’s a little ominous, but at the same time it feels vaguely… Peaceful. Still very cold though and your fingers soon feel numb.

You walk with them through the snow, making new footprints in it as you walk. Seems like no one really comes walking around here, or snow just fell from… Somewhere… Their magical equivalent of clouds, you suppose. Up ahead, there is a single thick branch of wood on the path, and beyond that there seems to be some kind of bridge across a sheer drop. Over the bridge, the path continues, but you’re unable to see specifics. Mostly just forest. You step over the branch on the path absentmindedly as Frisk steps on it, but it doesn’t break and seems to be pretty strong and heavy, maybe even too heavy for Frisk to pick up. You continue walking, thinking of what Toriel warned. Asgore… He’ll want to kill us… Who is he? Someone in some sort of power around here, most likely.

SNAP.

You quickly turn your head around, startled out of your thinking. You see that the branch you had stepped over and the branch Frisk had stepped on had broken and splintered in the snow as if it was nothing. But no one is there. Unless it had some delayed response to Frisk stepping on it and is weaker than it looked, then someone…

You grip Frisk’s hand tighter and pick up the pace as you walk towards the small bridge. Maybe the Underground’s inhabitants are more dangerous than you thought. You think that you hear faint footsteps behind you, though then again it may be your imagination, you’re unsure. When you approach the bridge, Frisk stops moving and seems to be a little scared of the bridge. You tug on their hand gently, but urgently. Out of the corner of your eye when you look down at Frisk you can see a dark shape walking towards you two… Frisk refuses to budge. The shadow gets closer. You’re frozen in fear but manage to pull Frisk in front of you. You’re about to turn around to face the monster, to try and reason with it, but it speaks first.

“humans.” He has a deep voice, a bit rough and intimidating but not entirely. It sounds just several inches from your hair, your senses are tingling from his presence. “don’t you know how to greet a new pal? turn around and shake my hand.” You turn around, very uncertain of this new person. However, when you turn around… You’re surprised, by the fact that the monster who had been following you is a human skeleton… Though he has a few differences… He wears a seemingly permanent grin that seems friendly enough, as his eyes seem friendly as well. They’re black and empty for the most part, but there’s a certain emotion there, and two white pinpricks that act as his pupils. He also has no nose, as a skeleton does not.

Along with this, something that surprises you again about him, is that he seems to have somewhat of an animated expression to him. You’re unsure how, considering he’s a skeleton, but you figure that with magic he’s able to have a facial expression as if he had muscle and skin like a living human would. Or perhaps he’s simply a monster that looks exactly like a human skeleton but isn’t really made of compact bone…? He wears a blue jacket with light grey fur trimming around the hood and a white soft looking sweater underneath, but with it he’s also wearing black shorts and fuzzy pink slippers.

As you’re looking him over, Frisk goes up to him with a small smile and shakes his hand (which you did not notice he had been reaching out to you both though you wouldn’t have been able to take it anyway with your sling). Suddenly the sound of a whoopee cushion fills the still air that had been filled with silence until that point, and you realize what happened with confusion and slight amusement.

“heheh… the old whoopee cushion in the hand trick. it’s always funny. anyways, you two are human, right? heh… i’m sans, sans the skeleton.” You’re a bit in shock, but you relax once you hear his voice and what he’s saying. He doesn’t seem to be very dangerous, he actually seems rather nice. Though his voice still has that, rough quality to it. “i’m actually supposed to be on watch for humans right now. but… y’know… i don’t really care about capturing anybody. now my brother, papyrus… he’s a human-hunting FANATIC.” Worry crosses your face.

“hey, actually, i think that’s him over there.” You turn your head to look, but you can’t see anyone coming down from the other side of the path. “i have an idea. go through this gate thingy.” You raise an eyebrow at him. Go through the gate thingy towards his brother who is supposedly a human-hunting fanatic? “yeah, go right through. my bro made the bars too wide to stop anyone.” You go through the gate thing with Frisk to the other side. There’s a section to the left with a random lamp and what appears to be a sentry station. “quick, you go behind that conveniently-shaped lamp and… you go behind that tree.” Sans tells you, and though you’re still unsure and undeniably curious about the skeleton, you do what he said. You go behind a nearby tree, where you can see Frisk and San’s back.

“sup, bro?” You can hear Sans saying, prompting you to peek out from behind the sentry station. You see another skeleton, who actually appears to be quite different than Sans though he is apparently his brother. The skeleton is significantly taller than Sans, and skinnier. He’s wearing some sort of superhero outfit, with a white shirt, red boots and mittens, and an orange-red scarf that drapes behind him similar to a cape. Complete with purple speedo around his pelvis. He is also smiling, but his “eyes” or eye sockets are smaller than San’s, narrower, and there are no pinpricks of white. Though, despite this, he seems to have the more dramatic facial expressions between the two brothers.

“YOU KNOW WHAT ‘SUP,’ BROTHER! IT’S BEEN EIGHT DAYS AND YOU STILL HAVEN’T… RECALIBRATED. YOUR. PUZZLES!” Puzzles? What puzzles? Also, this Papyrus is rather loud. Not unbearably so, but significantly more than Sans. “YOU JUST HANG AROUND OUTSIDE YOUR STATION! WHAT ARE YOU EVEN DOING?!?” Sans looks over at the lamp that Frisk is hiding behind.

“staring at this lamp. it’s really cool. do you wanna look?” You’re a bit panicked at this, scared that Papyrus might actually look and find Frisk there.

“NO!! I DON’T HAVE TIME FOR THAT!! WHAT IF A HUMAN COMES THROUGH HERE!?! I WANT TO BE READY!!! I WILL BE THE ONE! I MUST BE THE ONE! I WILL CAPTURE A HUMAN!” Well, you’re thankful that he at least seems to want to just capture you and Frisk, not harm. As far as you know. “THEN, I, THE GREAT PAPYRUS… WILL GET ALL THE THINGS I UTTERLY DESERVE! RESPECT… RECOGNITION… I WILL FINALLY BE ABLE TO JOIN THE ROYAL GUARD! People will ask, to, be my, ‘friend?’. I will bathe in a shower of kisses every morning…” This Papyrus doesn’t actually seem that bad. If anything he seems like an overexcited child. He doesn’t seem to have many friends and this makes you feel kind of sympathetic towards him. Though… You still don’t want to be captured by him.

“hmm… maybe that tree over there will help you.” Sans suggests cheekily, which might have made you smile if he was not referring to the tree that you were hiding behind.

“SANS!! YOU ARE NOT HELPING!! YOU LAZYBONES!! ALL YOU DO IS SIT AND BOONDOGGLE! YOU GET LAZIER AND LAZIER- … WAIT. WHAT _IS_ BEHIND THAT TREE?” Papyrus is now looking directly at you. Or, at least he would be, if he had pupils like Sans does. You see a bead of sweat on San’s skull as he looks back towards you.

“umm… you mean the tree behind that tree?” Sans suggests hopefully, and for a moment Papyrus seems tricked by it.

“OH… NO WAIT, TREES AREN’T RED AND PURPLE.” Papyrus goes closer over to you, and you try and shrink behind the tree. “DO NOT BE SCARED! I KNOW MY GREATNESS CAN OVERWHELM PEOPLE AT FIRST, BUT I ASSURE YOU THAT I, NOR MY GREATNESS, WILL NOT HARM YOU!” You sigh. You’ve been had… Well, at least he doesn’t seem to be entirely bright. Almost childish in that sense. You cautiously walk out from behind the tree. Papyrus stands there for a few moments, and both Sans and Papyrus look at each other and back at you a few times before Papyrus rushed over to Sans and spoke to him in a loud whisper. “SANS IS THAT… IS THAT A HUMAN?!?!”

“um… yes.”

“OH MY GOD. SANS! I FINALLY DID IT!! UNDYNE WILL… I’M GONNA… I’LL BE SO… POPULAR!!” Papyrus now addresses you. “HUMAN! YOU SHALL NOT PASS THIS AREA! I, THE GREAT PAPYRUS, WILL STOP YOU!! I WILL THEN CAPTURE YOU! YOU WILL BE DELIVERED TO THE CAPITAL! THEN… THEN! … I’m not sure what’s next after that. IN ANY CASE! CONTINUE… ONLY IF YOU DARE! NYEH HEH HEH HEH!!” He then leaves happily, and you’re unsure about this, but figure he doesn’t seem too dangerous… You go and take Frisk’s hand again.

“well, that went well.” Sans looks back over to you two with that grin of his. “don’t sweat it kid. i’ll keep an eye socket out for you two.” He winks at you casually, and it makes you surprised, and you wonder how exactly he can. He is a skeleton, after all… “in fact, i’ll walk with ya.” He offers, and you simply smile.

“Thanks.” You appreciate it as you’re not sure if you’ll get lost or not, and you’re about to start walking, when Papyrus suddenly comes back.

“SANS, NOW YOU REALLY NEED TO RECALIBRATE YOUR PUZZLES FOR THE HUMAN TO-“ Papyrus then sees Frisk. “OH MY GOD, SANS, IS THAT ANOTHER HUMAN?!” Papyrus exclaims, and you pull Frisk a little closer to yourself with your one free hand. Sans smiles at his brother.

“yeah bro.” He says, and you clear your throat to get their attention.

“Um, I’m _______, and this is Frisk. Is there… a place to get out of this cold? Maybe something to eat?” You ask as politely as possible. It’s pretty cold, and you are hungry as well.

“OH! YES, IN SNOWDIN, WHICH YOU WILL GET TO IF YOU’RE ABLE TO PASS MY PUZZLES FIRST!” You find him kind of amusing, and sweet. You start to relax a little in their presence.

“Okay, I guess I’ll try your puzzles then.”

“GOOD CHOICE, HUMAN!” It’s then that Papyrus notices your arm. “HUMAN, WHAT IS THAT, ARE YOU INJURED?!”

“Oh, yeah.. I broke my arm when we fell down here.” You explain, your arm tensing and hurting when you mention it, making you wince slightly.

“YOU… BROKE, YOUR ARM?!?”

“Yeah.. It’ll heal with time of course, but the bone has to-“

“SANS!! WHAT DO WE DO?!? CAN THEY NOT DO MY PUZZLES?!” Papyrus seems quite panicked by the fact that you broke your arm and the thought that you wouldn’t be able to do the puzzles. Sans thinks for a moment.

“i dunno bro. maybe we should give them a break.” Sans grins proudly, and you’re not very bothered by the pun on your injury. In fact you think it’s kind of clever.

“SANS!! THIS IS SERIOUS!!” Papyrus complains, and Frisk giggles.

“well, i guess she might be well enough to take a crack at your puzzles.” Sans is obviously undeterred, and you smile lightly because of it.

“SAAANNNSS!!!”

“c’mon Paps, it’s ulna a joke.” You laugh at this one with Frisk, which leaves Papyrus in disbelief.

“HUMAN! YOU ENJOY THESE TERRIBLE PUNS?!”

“I… I guess they just tickle my funny bone.” You could barely contain your giggles and Sans paused for a moment in surprise before chuckling with you. He puts up his hand for a high-five, which you give him. Papyrus makes a loudly audible gasp.

“NOT YOU TOO!!” He groans and turns around, obviously done with you two pun-makers. “I’M GOING TO GET MY PUZZLES READY FOR THE HUMANS, SANS!”

“all right bro.” Papyrus was soon out of sight due to the trees and we leave soon thereafter. “didn’t think i’d meet a punny fan.” Sans comments.

“Eh, I’m not good, but they are pretty funny.” You shrug modestly as the snow crunches under your feet. As you walk you come across another sentry station.

“that one’s my brother’s.” He mentions.

“He really wants to capture humans, huh?” You wonder vaguely just exactly why he wants to.

“oh yeah. but that’s just ‘cause he wants to become a royal guard.” You raise an eyebrow lightly.

“So, you have a king and everything?” You pause for a moment. You wonder if perhaps this is Asgore that Toriel was talking about, but you don’t want to ask yet. “We don’t have many kings on the surface. Some, but not where I live.”

“you have more than one? that must be a royal pain in the tail bone.”

“Yeah…” You chuckle a bit with him and rub the back of your neck. You’re a bit timid to ask what kind of king their king is, considering you don’t really want to offend him by asking if the king would really kill you… And you definitely don’t want to alarm Frisk to anything. You know the severity of the situation, but that doesn’t mean you have to scare them with it as well. You three walk along the path in silence until you come across another sentry station. This one looks a little different, with a dog head statue at the front of the roof. You pass a sign next to it and it reads “Absolutely NO MOVING!” You raise an eyebrow in curiosity at it and you’re about to walk onward, but then Frisk moves forward faster than you do and he’s met with a dog from behind the sentry station. You watch in shock as Frisk enters a fight, their little red heart-shaped soul coming out of their body in front of their chest.

“Did something move? Was it my imagination?” You hear the black and white dog mumble. You’re about to go and intervene, but Sans then puts one of his boney hands on your shoulder. It feels… Weird. Even with your shirt and jacket, you can feel each individual bone in his hand and it makes you shiver involuntarily.

“don’t worry, the kid can handle themselves.” He says reassuringly, though you’re still unsure. And when the dog swings his translucent blue spear at Frisk you audibly gasp, but then breathe a sigh of relief when you see that he wasn’t hurt. Frisk even pets the dog and the dog promptly freaks out, causing them to leave back behind their station. When Frisk’s soul goes back into their body, you go over to them and hug them, picking them up while doing so. You pout at them, silently telling them that you were worried. They just grin at you and you give in to the cuteness. You put them down and they look up at you and begin to sign.

 _“Blue attacks don’t hurt you if you don’t move.”_ They sign.

“yup, the kid’s right.” Sans remarks, suddenly right behind you, startling you a little bit but not too much. You smile a little, a little surprised that he knows sign language.

“Thanks for letting me know, that’s pretty useful.” Sans nods.

“yeah, that’s also my brother’s special attack… just, imagine a stop sign. when you see a stop sign, you stop, right? stop signs are red, so imagine a blue stop sign instead. simple, when fighting, think about blue stop signs.”

“Huh… Okay. Well, hopefully I won’t have to fight your brother. I’m not too tou-” Your sentence is cut short when you feel something far more slippery than snow underneath your feet. You fight to regain your balance, but only end up sliding backwards. Thankfully, you’re caught before you hit your head on the ground, and you immediately know who it is. Not only because Frisk wouldn’t be able to catch you as if you weighed nothing, but also because you felt the hand bones through your jacket again… It’s an odd feeling. Not entirely unpleasant though. You blush a bit in embarrassment as Sans puts you upright again.

“don’t worry kid, ice got you.” Sans slips in a pun, and you can hear him grinning in his voice. You laugh a little bit, out of nervousness and because of the pun.

“Thanks.”

“snow problem.” His grin gets bigger, and you laugh even more at this one. Puns… Your guilty pleasure. Then Frisk takes your hand and pulls you towards the northern path, apparently wanting to go there. “you guys go on over there,” Sans gestures towards the north and then he points towards the east with his thumb. “my brother’s puzzle and Snowdin are that way so i’ll go ahead and see if he’s there.” You nod and avoid the ice as Frisk takes you towards the north.

“Okay, we’ll meet you there then, I guess.”

“don’t get cold feet.” You don’t need to look back to know that Sans is grinning cheekily at your back before he goes off to the east.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey guys! Sorry, I was going to post yesterday, but I'm not feeling too good and I had a bunch of stuff to do. I hope you enjoyed it though! It's been pretty canon storyline so far, so I hope it doesn't bore you or anything. There's going to be some pretty non-canon, interesting, things happening soon though~  
> And thank you for reading and leaving kudos!


	4. MORE PUZZLES

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> MORE PUZZLES FROM THE GREAT PAPYRUS! NYEH-HEH-HEH!

You and Frisk head up north, where you find a single snowman. Frisk goes up to it, and much to your surprise (though you really shouldn’t be surprised considering recent events) the snowman starts to talk.

“Hello. I am a snowman. I want to see the world… But I cannot move.” You find this rather sad. “If you would be so kind, traveler, please. Take a piece of me and bring it very far away.” You’re kind of surprised by this, but Frisk promptly pulls out a plastic bag (where’d they get that?) and puts a piece of the snowman inside. “Thank you… good luck!” Frisk seals up the bag and then goes back to where you are. You’re smiling, but also a little astonished. The fact that most things, if not everything in the Underground is magical is hitting your sense of reality again. Still, you come back to yourself, and you take Frisk’s hand as you head back to go the eastern route this time. When you get there, there is a square shaped darker patch of snow on the ground, and Sans and Papyrus are on the other side of it.

“REALLY THOUGH! THAT HUMAN! THE SMALLER ONE, DO I KNOW THAT PERSON??” Papyrus yells.

“do you not know… who you know?” Sans says, though his voice is less loud so it’s harder to hear him.

“PBPBPPBPT!! OF COURSE I KNOW WHO I KNOW!!” Papyrus says confidently. “I WANTED TO KNOW IF YOU KNOW… I KNOW WHO I KNOW AS MUCH AS I KNOW I KNOW WHO IS I KNOW. … YOU KNOW?” You can’t even try to follow what Papyrus just said, and then Papyrus notices you and Frisk. “OH-HO! SPEAK OF THE DEVIL! IN ORDER TO STOP YOU… MY BROTHER AND I HAVE CREATED SOME PUZZLES! I THINK YOU WILL FIND THIS ONE… QUITE SHOCKING!! FOR YOU SEE, THIS IS THE INVISIBLE… ELECTRICITY MAZE!!” You bite your lip in slight worry. Electricity…?

“WHEN YOU TOUCH THE WALLS OF THIS MAZE, THIS ORB WILL ADMINISTER A HEARTY ZAP! SOUND LIKE FUN??” You don’t answer, as you don’t particularly find this very fun… You look over at Sans, unsure if Papyrus was actually serious, and Sans notices the worry on your face. His grin widens and he winks reassuringly, which helps you calm down a bit. Not fully, but a bit. “BECAUSE! THE AMOUNT OF FUN YOU WILL PROBABLY HAVE, IS… ACTUALLY RATHER SMALL I THINK. OK, YOU CAN GO AHEAD NOW.” You sigh and take a couple steps forward towards the maze, when suddenly Papyrus gets electrocuted, making you stop in your tracks. You’re kinda worried for him, but he seems relatively fine. “SANS!! WHAT DID YOU DO?!”

“i think the human has to hold the orb.” Sans explains calmly.

“OH, OKAY.” He then makes his way through the puzzle, apparently unaware that his footprints in the snow mark out the right way to get through the maze… “HOLD THIS PLEASE!” He throws the orb up and you catch it before it hits Frisk’s head. “OKAY, TRY NOW!” You pause for a moment, before pulling Frisk behind you as you walk on the trail that Papyrus left for you. You don’t get electrocuted following it and it’s easy to pass it. Papyrus looks shocked. “INCREDIBLE!! YOU SLIPPERY SNAIL!! YOU SOLVED IT SO EASILY… TOO EASILY! HOWEVER!! THE NEXT PUZZLE WILL NOT BE EASY! IT IS DESIGNED BY MY BROTHER, SANS! YOU WILL SURELY BE CONFOUNDED! I KNOW I AM! NYEH HEH HEH HEH!!” Papyrus then happily skips off and you watch him with a small casual smile.

“hey, thanks… my brother seems like he’s having fun. by the way, did you see that weird outfit he’s wearing? we made that a few weeks ago for a costume party. he hasn’t worn anything since… keeps calling it his ‘battle body’.” Sans chuckles lightly to himself. “my brother’s pretty cool, huh?” Frisk eagerly nods at this and you have to agree with him. Papyrus seems pretty sweet and not very dangerous at all. You look over towards where Papyrus went and then back at Sans.

“Do you wanna walk with us?” You offer, and Sans seems to be a little surprised by it. He gives you that almost unnoticeable look again, like he’s trying to figure you out… He shrugs.

“nah, you two go on ahead. i’m gonna take a shortcut and ketchup later.” He chuckles softly at his pun, which takes you a couple seconds to get, but you eventually do and smile at it.

“All right.” You and Frisk walk away towards where Papyrus went. After a small walk, you come across them again, and this time the puzzle is made by Sans… Which, is actually just a word search looking like it was torn out of a book in the middle of the snow. It is far to soggy to read though you can make out some of it. Papyrus and Sans proceed to argue about whether a crossword or a word search is harder, and Papyrus tells you to solve the dispute. You decide to side with Sans on this one and Papyrus concludes that you’re both weird and then goes off to his next puzzle. You watch him with a silent chuckle.

“No… Offense towards your brother, but he’s kinda cute. In a, friendly kid sort of way.” You chuckle awkwardly, but Sans chuckles with you.

“yup, that’s Papyrus. ya know, he finds difficulty in interesting places… yesterday he got stumped trying to ‘solve’ the horoscope.” You honestly laugh at this one, and Frisk laughs too. You then see something out of the corner of your eye and turn to see Papyrus running away hurriedly from what looks like a plate of spaghetti and an unplugged microwave. You raise an eyebrow at it before going over to check it out. There’s a note on the ground and you go and pick it up.

“Human! Please enjoy this spaghetti. Little do you know, this spaghetti is a trap… Designed to entice you! You’ll be so busy eating it… That you won’t realize that you aren’t progressing! Thoroughly japed again by The Great Papyrus. Nyeh-heh-heh, Papyrus.” You read the letter out for Frisk and… Sans? You notice upon looking up from the note that he isn’t there anymore. Frisk chuckles though, and you smile as well. You look over at the spaghetti and notice that it’s frozen to the table, and the unplugged microwave has “spaghetti” as all of its settings…

You move on to the next part with Frisk. This puzzle Frisk solves easily, finding the button between the trees and pressing it happily. You two are then allowed to pass over to the next area, where you cross a small bridge to get over to… Are those two dogs dressed in black cloaks with sharp looking axes…? You bring Frisk closer to you and you stand as still as possible, very unsure. Perhaps hanging out with the skeleton brothers made you too relaxed…

“What’s that smell?”

“Where’s that smell?”

“If you’re a smell…”

“… identify yoursmellf!” They look around, but narrowly miss you and Frisk just by inches. They then come back to where you two are.

“Hmm… Here’s that weird smell… It makes me want to eliminate.”

“… Eliminate YOU!” Your soul and HP manifest themselves again, but this time Frisk’s does as well. After many dodges (successful and unsuccessful), you finally figure out that to mask your scent you need to roll around in the snow. This leaves you very cold, slightly wet, and pretty dirty, but at least now they think you two smell like puppies. They leave soon after you pet them, and you sigh.

“Well… That was weird, but at least they left, huh?” You remark as you look down at Frisk. They seem… Quiet, but they look up at you with a nod and that leaves you content as you both walk down the path again.

 

What you didn’t see, was that Frisk was holding something inside of their pocket…

 

The next puzzle by Papyrus was pretty simple, you stepped on the Xs and turned them to Os before you pressed the button. Papyrus looks very alarmed.

“WHAT!? HOW DID YOU AVOID MY TRAP? AND, MORE IMPORTANTLY… IS THERE ANY LEFT FOR ME?” He asks like a hopeful child. It takes you a couple of minutes before getting it.

“Oh, the spaghetti?” You smile. “Yeah, don’t worry there’s plenty left.”

“REALLY?! WOWIE… YOU RESISTED THE FLAVOR OF MY HOMECOOKED PASTA… JUST SO YOU COULD SHARE IT WITH ME?!” You nod enthusiastically.

“Yup.”

“FRET NOT HUMANS! I, MASTER CHEF PAPYRUS… WILL MAKE YOU ALL THE PASTA YOU COULD EVER WANT! HEH HEH NYEH!” He then walks off to the next puzzle, which is not very far off. You walk over with him. “MY BROTHER STARTED A SOCK COLLECTION RECENTLY. How saddening… Sometimes I wonder what he would do… WITHOUT SUCH A COOL GUY TAKING CARE OF HIM? NYEH HEH HEH!” Papyrus wonders out loud as you go over to the next puzzle and Papyrus explains it.

The puzzle has the basic same concept as the last one, turn all the Xs into Os and then press the switch, however, in this one if you step on an X twice it turns into a triangle and can’t turn back. It’s also very hard to figure out because of the blocks of snow in between it, creating narrow passageways. It’d be easier with a bird’s eye view, but eventually you get it. Victoriously, you solve it and press the button.

“WOW!! YOU SOLVED IT! AND YOU DID IT ALL WITHOUT MY HELP… INCREDIBLE! I’M IMPRESSED! YOU MUST CARE ABOUT PUZZLES LIKE I DO! WELL, I’M SURE YOU’LL LOVE THE NEXT PUZZLE THEN! IT MIGHT EVEN BE TOO EASY FOR YOU! NYEH! HEHEH!” Papyrus then goes off to the next puzzle with a big grin on his face. … Sure, he always has a grin because he’s a skeleton but this time it feels like he’s actually meaning to grin. You walk back over towards where Papyrus went and you see Sans on the other side of the spikes that kept you from progressing before. But… He wasn’t there before, was he? Had you just not noticed? You dismiss the speculation as unimportant.

“good job on solving it so quickly. you didn’t even need my help. which is great, ‘cause i love doing absolutely nothing.” You chuckle as you feel a slightly mischievous spark in you.

“Guess you could say you’re a bit of a lazybones?” You just couldn’t help yourself. Sans seems pleasantly surprised. Papyrus speaks before Sans can reply.

“FINALLY, HUMAN, YOU’RE HERE! YOU’RE GONNA LOVE THIS PUZZLE! IT WAS MADE BY THE GREAT DR. ALPHYS!” Papyrus then explains the very complex puzzle that you did not see coming, based on the previous puzzles. You decide to take a risk and say that you understand it, even though you do so just vaguely. Papyrus flips the switch and you nearly are induced into a seizure by the bright flashing lights. You actually have to close your eyes and scrunch up your nose a bit as it randomly generates the pattern. Soon enough, it stops and you open your eyes to… A perfect pink road. Papyrus seems to recognize the easiness of this puzzle and he slips off out of view.

You cross the simple puzzle and then walk on. You pass a dog staring at a mound of snow, giving it a friendly smile though not stopping to chat. You go up ahead and find a puzzle on ice. Considering the mishap with ice you had before this, you’re unsure, but you step ahead to try and solve it. However, Frisk steps in front of you and you look down at them.

 _"Let me try first."_ They sign, and you don’t see the harm so you agree.

“Okay, Frisk. Go ahead.” Frisk then goes on to try and solve the puzzle, but, the second he steps on it he slips and slides across the patch of ice. And… He falls over the side of it. You gasp and panic, before you hear the snow crunch below it which you can get to if you follow a nearby path. You rush to Frisk and pick them up, as they’re not heavy at all. “Are you okay?” They nod reassuringly into your shoulder and you sigh in relief. “Good.” You then notice that there is a snow sculpture of Papyrus right next to you. It actually makes him look very buff, only a red scrap of fabric and his face look the most accurate. A small lump of snow is next to it with the name “sans” written on it in red marker. You can’t help but smile at it, before carrying Frisk back up the path to solve the ice puzzle.

 

~~~

 

Sans just can’t figure it out. He’s been watching you two from the trees quietly for a while now, trying to get answers to the many questions inside of his skull. For one, the most obvious thing, you’re new… The newest thing he’s seen in a long time, and it makes him feel uneasy but at the same time hopeful. Maybe a new variable will make everything different enough to put things right again.

The second thing, Frisk… Well, they’re either determined and merciful or cold and ruthless. There’s no in between. But, he saw what Frisk was holding in his pocket earlier when you were fighting Dogamy and Dogarissa. It was a knife. Yet, at the same time they also seems childlike and innocent like they are when it’s a good timeline.

It doesn’t make sense… They either kill everyone, or just kill Asgore and leave Toriel to take over… there… might have been a better timeline once, where everyone lives, but he can’t remember it. The last most recent runs were bad ones… He’s watched Papyrus die at least a hundred times before but it always feels new, like he didn’t remember it fully until it happened and then he realized just how much he knew.

He looks up and watches you solve the ice puzzle (after slipping onto your butt a couple times). He doesn’t know what to make of you. After all the runs he’s done in the timelines he’s had time to figure out people and what they are, his teleporting abilities make that even easier. But you… He knows little to nothing about you… Other than you’re name is _______, you’re Frisk’s cousin, you apparently have a liking for puns, and you obviously love Frisk and care for them very much. He watches you pet Greater Dog happily and play around with him with Frisk. That makes him smile. Well… at the very least, it looks like he won’t have to show you a bad time…

 

~~~

 

“… I dunno Frisk, this looks really sketchy.” You say as you look at the bridge that connects this one sheer cliff from the next one, where you could see the outlines of Sans and Papyrus. They look up at you reassuringly.

 _"Don't worry, it's safe."_  They sign to you, before taking your hand and pulling you forward. You grip their hand tightly, not because you’re afraid of the height you’re at, but because you’re scared that they might fall. Thankfully, the bridge is not nearly as long as it appeared to be and you are almost over to the other side, when Frisk stops. You’re about to question why, when Papyrus speaks.

“HUMANS! THIS IS YOUR FINAL AND MOST DANGEROUS CHALLENGE! BEHOLD! THE GAUNTLET OF DEADLY TERROR!” Suddenly, almost out of nowhere, (upon closer inspection they were being suspended with orange magic), was a ball of spikes on a chain, a flame canon, an actual canon, two harpoons, and… A dog on a rope. Well, at least he looks happy about it. You’re more than a little bit frightened as you hold onto Frisk and pull them tightly against you, you would have pulled them behind you but the bridge was not big enough for that. “WHEN I SAY THE WORD, IT WILL FULLY ACTIVATE! CANNONS WILL FIRE! SPIKES WILL SWING! BLADES WILL SLICE! EACH PART WILL SWING VIOLENTLY UP AND DOWN! ONLY THE TINIEST CHANCE OF VICTORY WILL REMAIN! ARE YOU READY?!” No, no you are most definitely not ready and you’ll be damned if you don’t try and talk your way out of this one. You say the first thing that comes into your mind.

“But, Papyrus, I thought we were friends!” That seems to shock both the tall skeleton and the smaller one.

“I… I… WELL, OF COURSE YOU WOULD WANT TO BE THE GREAT PAPYRUS’S FRIEND, HUMAN! IT’S ONLY NATURAL WHEN SOMEONE IS AS GREAT AS I, BUT…” Papyrus looks very conflicted. “YOU KNOW WHAT SANS? THIS TRAP IS TOO EASY TO CAPTURE THE HUMANS WITH. I AM A SKELETON OF VERY HIGH STANDARDS, MY PUZZLES ARE ALWAYS MORE THAN FAIR WITH MY SPAGHETTI TRAPS EXPERTLY COOKED, SO WE CANNOT USE THIS ONE IT’S FAR TOO DIRECT. … HOWEVER, I WILL BE WAITING FOR YOU HUMANS AT THE END OF SNOWDIN. I WILL NOT ALLOW YOU TO PASS AND YOU WILL BE CAPTURED BY THE GREAT PAPYRUS! NYEH HEH HEH!” He gallops merrily towards the town, and Sans looks a bit dumbfounded for a moment, before he simply goes back to his own grinning self.

“good job.” He simply remarks, as you head on towards Snowdin as well.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The next chapter is going to be interesting~ Though I'm unsure when it's gonna be up... Probably a little longer than usual, probably next Sunday.


	5. Snowdin with Nightmares

You can’t help but smile as you look around the small town. It’s not very big at all, and somewhat cozy because of it. You look around, and talk to a couple of people there. You find that they’re celebrating their version of Christmas, though it has a very different backstory than the human one. You’re also quite curious about the bar, Grillby’s, but you don’t particularly think it’s kid friendly if it was like a human bar. You end up talking to the shop keeper, and eventually the innkeeper. After such a hectic day, you really need some TLC but you don’t have enough money for a room to stay the night…

Not long after you visit the inn you decide to visit the… Librarby? You raise an eyebrow but go in anyway with Frisk, who has started shivering.

“Welcome to the library. Yes, we know. The sign is misspelled.” The person behind the desk says to you as you walk in. They must’ve gotten it a lot before… You simply nod and let Frisk go off and talk, or more so listen and sign to the other monsters in the library as you go and look through the books. You’re dead tired, but have nowhere to sleep, so you might as well learn more about the place you’re in and its people. It’s a bit tricky to read with just one hand, but you take a couple from the shelves and sit down with crossed legs so you can flip through the pages of the book on the floor.

“Love, hope, compassion… This is what people say monster souls are made of. But the absolute nature of a ‘soul’ is unknown. After all, humans have proven their souls don’t need these things to exist.”

You cringe when you read this. You can’t necessarily disagree or disvalue their reasonable anger towards humans. They did, after all, trap all of the monsters there underground. And while you’d like to think that humans today would be more open-minded, you’re not entirely sure… People can be cruel, especially towards other people who challenged social-norms. Monsters would be challenging the entire human’s existence as the “superior” species. Yet, that wouldn’t excuse any intolerance they would have towards monsters. In the short time you’ve been there, you could tell that they aren’t bad people at all. In fact, nicer and more friendly than many humans on the surface. You move on to the next book, and then the next book, and soon you know a fair amount on monsters to satisfy you.

“Awwww…” You hear one of the lady monsters at the table in the library aww, and you look over to see that Frisk has fallen asleep while listening to them. You’re a bit thankful that they didn’t take it offensively thinking that they might’ve gotten bored and fallen asleep because of that. You go over and pet their hair softly. You would’ve picked them up, but your broken arm prevents this, so you settle for pets.

“Are they your little sibling?” One of the monsters asks you, which stuns you for a split-second.

“Well, kind of. They’re like a sibling to me, though they’re really my cousin.”

“Oh how sweet.” The others nod in agreement, and you smile softly at this. Then the women turn to look towards the door, though you didn’t hear anyone come inside, apparently you are wrong because you hear Sans’ voice a moment after.

“hey kid, how’s being snowed in in snowdin?” Sans asks with that cheeky smile of his. You raise an eyebrow.

“Are we actually snowed in..?” He chuckles.

“no, but just about. you should probably get heading to the inn.” He looks over at Frisk. “looks like the kid already checked in.” You chuckle very lightly.

“I’d take them to the inn, but I don’t have enough money for a night.” He seems kinda stunned at this.

“oh. guess your arm isn’t the only thing that’s broke, huh?”

“Not my fault monsters don’t accept human money.” You pout slightly, but in all actuality you’re not too worried. The rabbit lady at the inn seemed rather reasonable, you could probably work something out with her, especially if it was nearly snowing in the buildings. She’d understand.

“you can stay with me and papyrus.” You’re surprised, and looking at Sans it looks he’s also kind of surprised that he offered. “i think it would make my brother happy, him wanting to capture you and all.” Sans explains quickly.

“Oh… Right. Um, well, I guess if it isn’t too much trouble… We could both use some sleep before we leave.” Sans just nods and jerks his skull towards the door.

“we should go before the snow’s so deep we’re snowmen by the time we reach the house.” He takes a couple steps towards the door before he realizes you’re not following him. He looks back and sees you kind of standing there, awkwardly, not quite sure how to approach holding Frisk with your one arm… He pauses for a moment, but then goes over and scoops Frisk up in his arms, holding them against him, half engulfed by his plush blue jacket.

“Thanks.” You thank him for that as you follow him out of the library door. If he replied, you didn’t hear him, because currently the winds have picked up and a shiver goes through you as it hits the protective outer layer of your jacket that doesn’t seem as protective anymore. You follow Sans to his house, which is thankfully not very far away from the library, almost right next to it. It’s a two story house made of homey-looking dark brown wood, a light glow coming from the windows and colored Christmas lights around certain parts of it, and a small covering over the front door and steps. There is also a small balcony on the other side of the house, which overlooks the icy river, snow, and is above what appears to be their garage (though why they have this, you’re unsure, as you haven’t seen any cars). You pass two mailboxes on your way there, one being stuffed to the brim with junk mail and other miscellaneous notes you cannot identify. The next one is empty, and you don’t need to ask which mailbox is for which brother.

You follow Sans up the stairs to the front door and he can easily hold Frisk (still sleeping, to your surprise) as he opens the front door to let himself and you in. It’s significantly warmer inside than outside, which you welcome openly, and you close the door as soon as you get inside to close out the snow. Sans walks over to a lumpy green couch and lays Frisk on it, as you glance around the home. In front of you is an open doorway that leads into a kitchen, where a strong smell of spaghetti and tomatoes comes from. You can also see Papyrus in there with his spine to you, wearing a yellow and faded pink apron. The upstairs has two rooms that you can see due to an open balcony hallway that looks over the living room. The living room, which you are standing in, consists of the couch that Frisk is laying on, a TV on the opposite wall, and a table near the doorway (that curiously has a rock on it covered with sprinkles). Papyrus then turns around.

“BROTHER! I’VE MADE YET ANOTHER SUPERB BATCH OF-” Papyrus then sees you and Frisk and he makes a very strongly surprised expression. “SANS WHY ARE THE HUMANS HERE?!?”

“they needed a place to stay bro. and you wanted to capture them, right?”

“OH… WELL I SUPPOSE SO. I GUESS THAT’S SETTLED THEN.” He then turns to you with a welcoming grin. “HUMAN, ARE YOU HUNGRY? I HAVE MADE SPAGHETTI!” You smile back at him.

“Sure, Papyrus, that sounds good. I love pasta.” Papyrus’s face lights up upon hearing this.

“GREAT!” He turns and goes back to making the pasta happily. You turn back to Sans and Frisk to see that Sans is not there anymore, though you hadn’t heard him leave, but Frisk is sleeping comfortably on the couch among the lumps with a blanket over their small frame. You walk over to the couch and sit on one of the armrests, glad that the skeleton brothers didn’t mind you two staying at their house.

Though… As you look down at Frisk, worry creeps into your mind again. You two are still in danger, even if not for the time being. Is it really possible to negotiate your way to the surface? Will Asgore even give you time to negotiate before he tries to kill you both? Somehow, you doubt it… Maybe it would be a good idea to stay here in Snowdin a little while longer, form a plan of action, but still you don’t want to alarm Frisk. They don’t seem too worried about your situation, and you don’t want them to get scared simply because you are. You sigh and lean up against the wall, just as your stomach growls. Damn, the last time you ate was those few bites of pie you had at Toriel’s… That was some good pie…

“HUMAN, I HAVE YOUR SPAGHETTI!” Papyrus’s enthusiastic voice from the kitchen broke you out of your somber mindset, and the gentle, warm waft of spaghetti smells made your stomach growl again. “I HAVE SPAGHETTI FOR YOU TOO, SANS!” Papyrus calls up to his brother’s room, and Sans soon emerges from his room, which you see is the room on the right. You then go into the kitchen and see that Papyrus has prepared three plates of spaghetti for you, Sans and himself. You sit down with a smile.

“It looks great Papyrus.”

“OF COURSE IT DOES! IT WAS PREPARED BY THE GREAT PAPYRUS!” Sans comes into the kitchen soon and goes over to the fridge, taking out a squeezable bottle of ketchup before sitting down across from you. Papyrus sits at the head of the table in between you both and starts twirling the spaghetti with his fork, seeming to enjoy it as he takes a bite. You do the same and take your first bite. … You soon discover that the spaghetti was not as good as it looked or smelled. The taste is… odd. It’s unlike any pasta you’ve tasted before and is a weird in between of being terrible and mildly good. “THAT EXPRESSION… SO PASSIONATE! YOU MUST LOVE MY PASTA!” You force a smile as you swallow the food.

“Yeah… It’s good, Papyrus.” You can’t bring yourself to be brutally honest with him, you’re sure that’d break his heart. And at least it wasn’t too inedible.

“THANK YOU! THE GREAT PAPYRUS IS A WONDERFUL SPAGHETTI CONNOISSEUR!” Sans drowns his spaghetti in the ketchup before taking a bite, and then giving his brother a thumbs up and his never-faltering grin.

“not bad bro.” Papyrus looks rather pleased with this praise.

“I’M GLAD YOU LIKE IT BROTHER!” Papyrus then continued to scoop it into his skeletal mouth and you wonder where the food goes, as it seems to disappear when he “swallows” like it was going down his throat, but he has none. This is rather perplexing, but you reason that you’re talking to skeletons in their home in an underground world full of monsters. This isn’t the most perplexing thing about your situation.

You force yourself to eat the rest of the spaghetti, which your taste buds numb to eventually. Throughout the meal Sans drinks from the ketchup bottle as if it were a regular drink like soda or water, which intrigues and confuses you at the same time. Sure, ketchup can be pretty good sometimes, but not just by itself… You think…

After the meal you clean up your dish in the sink, though it’s extremely high for you (especially because you’re short) so you have to stand on your toes to reach it. It’s a bit awkward, but you manage it for the sake of manners. Then you walk back into the living room and see that Frisk is still sleeping quietly on the couch. There’s another blanket and more pillows next to them, and you assume they’re for yourself, though you’re unsure about where they came from. You set yourself up on the side of the couch that Frisk isn’t sleeping on, which doesn’t leave you room to lay down but leaves enough room for you to sit curled up comfortably. You situate yourself, moving a couple of times to get accustomed to the lumps, and then you try to sleep. It takes a little while, but eventually you slip off into that sweet, dark abyss…

 

~~~

 

Blackness… It surrounds you and makes you feel ethereal. You feel that you may be alone… But that feeling soon dwindles into the feeling that there is a presence with you, where you are. You look around, to try and see something, and eventually you see a light. It’s soft, bluish green, glowing and calming. You want to go towards it, and you do. You suddenly find yourself in the middle of what appears to be… a glowing marsh? Well, not exactly like a marsh, the water is clearer and glowing. It’s really quite beautiful…

Your vision blurs, and glitches like a virus on a computer screen. In the next few seconds your location shifts and changes until you’re in a never-ending hall that stretches forever on either side of you. In front of you is a wall- wait, no… Not a wall, a door. A simple, white door… You’re compelled to open it, even though you have no idea what is on the other side. The unknown scares you, but the compelling feeling of need is overwhelming and it makes you reach for the handle and turn it. You feel like it should creak but it surprisingly doesn’t make a single sound.

Inside is small hallway, that leads to small white room. In the middle of the room is a black and white figure… You can’t completely make out any features, and you feel yourself walking against your will towards it. The closer you get the more features you can make out, and though the more you see the more frightened you get, you can’t stop yourself from walking forward… He looks like a skeleton, like Sans and Papyrus, with a pure white face and empty eye sockets, though he also has a black mouth-like smile instead of a toothy grin. His face is also cracked, his left eye cracks down into his mouth and his right jaggedly cracks up the side of his head.

He stares at you with that smile of his as you draw closer to him, and you grow more confused and panicked. You notice that he’s wearing a white turtleneck sweater, and the blackness is a large black cloak that looks like one could get lost in it. The only other part of him that is exposed are his hands, which are bones, and… Have large, perfect circle holes in the middle of them. Your eyes widen in a mix of intrigue and fear. He must have noticed, because he begins to sign with his hands.

 _"Do not be afraid."_  But how could you not? Your mind is going fuzzy and there’s a ringing in your ears. His expression turns to one of worry and he tries to reach out to you, but you back away, unsure and frightened. His face softens understandingly as your vision starts to melt into blackness, so very slowly. He starts to sign again.  _"My name is..."_

It goes dark.

 

~~~

 

You hear a cry and jolt up, awakened. You look over at the other end of the couch and you’re shocked to see Frisk, bleeding from their nose and crying hysterically with their head in their hands. You move over to them, confused and motherly as you bring them into your arms, only to be pushed away, causing them to fall back and off of the couch, tumbling to a heap on the ground, their hair is a wild mess of despair that covers their eyes.

“F-Frisk? Frisk, sweetheart what’s wrong?” You ask, scared again, but for a far different reason than when in your dream. They look up at you with eyes that make your heart wrench with the urge to comfort them. They begin to sign, sloppily with shaky hands, which you try to understand.

 _"I'm so... so sorry..."_  They tearily look up at you with eyes that scream at you to help them but at the same time makes an icy chill run down your spine. Their eyes glint with crimson hatred.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well... This is where things get interesting... Next chapter will probably be up next Saturday.


	6. Snowy Confusion

You barely had enough time to react as Frisk pulls a small toy knife from their pocket and lunges towards you with it in hand. Out of instinct your unbound arm shoots up to protect yourself, but before Frisk can hurt you with the toy knife, two bone arms wrap around them and hold them back. Sans is wearing an old looking grey but stained T-shirt and baggy blue sweat pants and looks panicked as he holds Frisk, who is still trying to swing at you with their knife. His left eye suddenly glows bright cyan blue and a golden yellow as the light in the other dissipates.

“Don’t hurt them, please!” You hear yourself say though you don’t remember telling yourself to do so. His blue-yellow eye flickers towards you and then back at the child in his arms before a chair from the kitchen brings itself over to the living room and Sans puts Frisk in it. Christmas lights come from upstairs and Sans grabs them from out of midair, strapping Frisk down quickly to the chair, though they still struggle wildly. Their knife falls to the floor and you stare at it for a few moments. Sans pants softly as he regains his breath, staring down at Frisk with his glowing eye. The glow is like a wild fire that licks the side of his eye socket and skull and his usual grin has turned into a conflicted grimace. Frisk glares up at Sans and the expression on their face terrifies you.

“did they hurt you?” Sans asks, but still staring at Frisk, who has stopped struggling against the Christmas lights but their eyes are still a hazy red, as far as you could tell in the dim lightening.

“N-no…”

“what happened?” You sigh as you regain your senses.

“They… I think they had a nightmare. They were crying, they had a bloody nose, and then when I went to hold them they pushed away and fell down… They said that they were sorry and then their eyes turned red and they attacked me…” You’re so confused. “I… I have no idea why they would do this.” Your voice is nearly trembling as Sans turns to you, his eyes softening and turning normal.

“it… it’s going tibia okay.” He cracked a smile, his pun a weak attempt to reassure your spirit, but his eyes did not match the rest of his face. “i’ll help ya with this. i… it’s not the first time…” You look up at him, perplexed again.

“You know why this is happening to Frisk?” Your voice has a tremor of hope.

“no… no, but this has happened before…” Frisk looks down at the floor when Sans mentions this.

“What do you mean? You’ve never met them before, we just got here!” Your shock and confusion is turning into hysteria. The nightmare you had before all of this is not helping. A bead of sweat forms on Sans’ skull as your voice raises and he nervously looks over at Papyrus’s room. You understand and calm yourself down. “… Please… Explain to me what you mean.” Sans doesn’t answer and looks back at Frisk, who is disturbingly quiet, with the exception of an occasional small struggle to get free from the Christmas lights.

“i… it’s not that simple, kid.” Frisk suddenly looks up at both of you, and you sigh in relief as you see that their eyes have returned to normal. They’re face is tear stained and they look the most frightened that you’ve ever seen them. They look down at their currently tied down state and begin to cry again.

“I’m sorry… I’m so sorry…” You hear them whisper, and you’re stunned for a moment. You haven’t heard their voice in a very long time, but their voice is as you remember it. “It wasn’t me…” Your chest tightens.

“What do you mean?” You ask them, but they don’t answer you. Their head is hung as the tears drip down into their lap and they remain silent. Sans is visibly and audibly shaking, his bones click together as you would imagine a wooden wind-chime would sound like.

“kid, answer the question. what do you mean it wasn’t you when you attacked her?” Sans voice is level but has a hint of trembling. Frisk’s hands lightly tug upward against the Christmas lights and try to sign, though they are bound and unable to. You slowly get up from the couch and go over to them, as you do so Sans is about to hold you back but he hesitates. You kneel down and cautiously undo Frisk’s hands, you're relieved when they do not try and hurt you again.

 _"It was Chara. Chara made me do it."_  They sign to you.

“Who is Chara?” You ask, more confused than you were before. They look like they want to sign to you, tell you, but they don’t and their arms fall to their sides as new tears fall from their eyes. You undo the rest of the lights and bring them into your arms, holding them tightly to your chest. They’re limp for a few moments but then cling to you with an urgency you never felt with them. They shake like an earthquake shook their soul as they whimper into your shoulder. You stay there on the floor with them, rocking them softly until they fall asleep…

 

~~~

 

“RISE AND SHINE, HUMANS! I HAVE BREAKFAST SPAGHETTI FOR YOU!” You awake with a violent jolt. You find yourself on your back on the lumpy couch, with Frisk sleeping on top of you. A blanket was placed on top of both of you and you can only guess that how you got there was because of Sans. Frisk slowly wakes up from their place on top of you with sleepy, droopy eyes and looks around drowsily. For a second you wonder if what happened last night was real, but seeing the mess that both you and Frisk are, you know it was. You both walk over to where Papyrus is in the kitchen, holding Frisks’s hand.

“Okay, Papyrus, we’re just gonna get clean up a little beforehand.” You tell him softly, and he grins over his shoulder.

“OKAY! Bathroom’s over there!” He points to a door next to the kitchen you hadn’t seen before, and you smile.

“Thanks.” You go inside with Frisk and proceed to slowly wash their face as well as your own. It’s an odd silence. It’s not like one would have between an adult and a child, it’s more so like a silence between two fully matured adults after something serious happened the night before. Which, is almost exact to the circumstance at hand. You’re scared, you can’t deny that, but you also know that whatever happened is not Frisk’s fault. They didn’t want to hurt you, or try to… You half force a smile down at them and hug them, apparently surprising them as they jolt at your touch, before you let go and pull them out of the bathroom to have breakfast.

The tall skeleton brother looked quite cheerful as he put down four plates of freshly made pasta, which looks as enticing as the last batch did with its gleaming sauce topped with cheese and perfect looking cooked noodles. You know how looks can be deceiving though with Papyrus’s cooking and you feel suddenly rather thirsty than hungry.

“It looks good Papyrus.” You praise with a smile, which isn’t too forced thankfully.

“OF COURSE HUMAN, IT'S THE BEST BATCH I’VE MADE! I IMPROVE EVERY TIME!” Papyrus proclaims proudly, making you genuinely chuckle softly.

“That’s great, Papyrus, but I’m feeling kind of thirsty. Do you have anything I could drink?” You ask, and Papyrus thinks for a moment before rummaging through the fridge. Frisk sits down at the table with a small smile, looking down at the spaghetti. You suppose that you might be able to stomach it, if you have something to drink it with…

“SORRY HUMAN, I DO NOT HAVE ANYTHING EXCEPT MY BROTHERS’ KETCHUP BOTTLES!” Papyrus says apologetically. You’re slightly disappointed at first, but then you remember the bar that you saw yesterday. … You glance over at Frisk, unsure if you should leave them alone or not after what happened last night, who’s to say it wouldn’t happen when Papyrus is there and then Frisk would try and hurt him? You remember Frisk’s knife and look over to where it was last, where it fell. It’s gone and you assume that Sans took it, which makes you sigh silently in relief. You look back at Frisk and see them eating their spaghetti, with a half-content expression on their faces. You’re hesitant, but you believe that they’ll be all right if you just go down to the bar and get something to drink.

“What about that bar I saw in the town? Grillby’s?” Papyrus scrunches up his non-existent nose at this suggestion.

“OH, NO! YOU DO NOT WANT TO GO THERE, HUMAN. SANS GOES THERE OFTEN, BUT I DON’T STEP FOOT IN IT.” He professes strongly, making you raise an eyebrow at it.

“Why?”

“THEY DON’T SERVE ANY SPAGHETTI! OR ANY KIND OF OTHER PASTA EITHER!” Papyrus complains, making you crack a smile.

“All right, don’t worry Papyrus I’m only going to go over there for a drink. If I want any pasta I’ll go straight to you.” This seems to make the skeleton monster quite happy, and so you go over to Frisk and kneel down next to them. “Be good for Papyrus, okay?” You smile at them, though behind it is clear worry and concern. They can sense this and they nod as reassuring as they can, making you relax. Just a bit. You then head out the door to go get something to drink from Grillby’s and check the bar out.

It’s not a very far walk from the skeleton brothers’ house to Grillby’s, and you soon can feel the warmth coming from inside. You open the door and you’re met with the sound of casual chatter among friends, although the bar seemed slightly empty, alongside the smell of some good (though perhaps not healthy) food and a surprisingly low smell of alcohol. But you suppose that it’s still too early in the morning for that. It looks like a very nice, quant establishment. There’s a couple monsters there, including a small rabbit in the booth next to the door, a fish man next to the bar, and a man made of fire that seems to be the bartender. The door’s bell jingles when it opens and as you approach the bar, the fire bartender comes over to you to ask if you want anything to drink.

“Oh, yeah, do you have any water?” The bartender says he’d get you some, but he doesn’t touch the stuff. You figure you should’ve known that. “How about some orange juice?” He nods at this and goes into the back room to get you some as you sit down. Not a couple minutes later, the door’s bell rings again and you look over to see that Sans has walked in. He looks like he didn’t sleep last night and looks startlingly troubled… He looks up and the little pinpricks of white light seem to be stunned when he sees you there. You offer a small smile, but he suddenly turns around and walks out of the bar.

“W-wait!” Sans doesn’t turn around and the door clicks shut. You watch, unsure what to do, before you decide you should go after him. Not only to make sure that he is all right, but also because you deserve some answers and you need to know what he knows about what happened last night. Frisk is too precious to you for you to let any information out of your grasp. Sans walks out of the door and the door swings shut as you get up from your seat and hurry over to the door, opening it quickly and looking outside. Damn, the wind has picked up since you walked inside the small bar, hasn’t it? You look left and right in search of the slipper wearing skeleton, but find that he is nowhere to be seen. You sigh and growl in frustration and turn back into the bar, to see that the bartender has come out with your orange juice. You walk back over to him, still wanting to find Sans and get some answers to what he knew about what was happening to Frisk.

“Here you go.” The bartender says, in his deep, smooth but slightly crackling voice. It sounds like one would expect a warm fire on a cool winter’s day would sound like if it could speak. You take the orange juice and drink it, steadily enough that you do not choke but also in a rushed manner.

“You wouldn’t know where Sans goes in the morning, would you? I need to talk to him.” You ask the bartender, who is cleaning another glass. He thinks for a moment.

“He has a few jobs around the Underground. I’d try his sentry station first, or ask the other sentry dogs, but you shouldn’t try to find him in that weather.” The bartender advises you, and you think about this for a moment before going against your better judgement.

“Don’t worry I’ll be all right, thank you.” You turn and rush out of the bar. Forgetting to pay for your orange juice and leaving the bartender to watch you leave, slightly worried, before he puts the drink on Sans’ tab.

 

~~~

 

Sans silently worries as he curls up behind his sentry station, out of the freezing winds. He did, of course, quickly “teleport” over to his house to check on Papyrus and Frisk, considering Frisk wasn’t there with you at Grillby’s… he still doesn’t know what exactly is happening to them… though they mentioned Chara… The name sounds familiar but Sans can’t remember from where. He’s wracked his skull trying to remember. It feels like it’s something… something he might have heard his father mentioning… He groans and sips some ketchup.

You want answers. You want to know what exactly he meant when he said that this has happened before, and he wants to tell you but… Well, he’s never told anyone about the other timelines, at the very least not the recent ones. And this, specifically has never happened before in any timelines he can remember, so what would be the use of telling you about the others? He doesn’t fully understand why it happens himself, or why Frisk sometimes is like how they are some times and other times… less themselves. You wouldn’t understand if he told you. In the distant memory of the early timelines he tried to tell Asgore, Papyrus, Undyne, Alphys, anyone… But no one seemed to believe him. Alphys believed him a little bit, but she mostly thought that he was having a mental breakdown of some sort.

No… You wouldn’t believe him in the slightest. You would get scared if he told you about the timelines, then you’d run off with Frisk and who knows what would happen after that… Frisk obviously isn’t completely truthful this time around, or determined enough to give mercy. They haven’t killed yet, as far as he knows, but who’s to say they won’t eventually? Now you… you might not kill, you at the very least want to try and not kill anything, but you’re attached to Frisk the same way that he’s attached to Papyrus, and if anything were to threaten Papyrus…

He sighs and takes another sip of ketchup. The wind whistles and picks up snow outside of his sentry station, and chills his ribcage beneath his jacket.

He shivers.

 

~~~

 

You’re lost. The snow had picked up around you and now you can’t see anything but the vague resemblance of a pathway and the cold whiteness around you, whipping at your face and your hair. You have your arms wrapped around you like a vise, the broken one around your chest as tightly as possible without it being painful and the other higher up, gripping your hood around your head. This storm feels far stronger than the one yesterday, and it makes you annoyed as well as slightly worried for yourself and for Sans, if he’s out here like you believe that he is. You half hope that he really is, considering the fact you’re facing this near-blizzard to find him.

“SANS?!” You shout out into the snow, shivering violently and feeling your nose go numb rather quickly. “Sans!?” You consider turning around and trying to find your way back to Snowdin and the skeleton brother’s home, but you believe that would only make you more lost than you already are. You groan and sigh shakily, your teeth chattering. You just wanted answers…  
You continue walking on, trying to find something that you can get behind for shelter or something of that sort. Eventually you recognize the path you took with Frisk out of the Ruins and you start looking around for Sans’ sentry station.

“Sans?!” You weakly yell out, your lungs cold from all the wind.

“_______?” You hear Sans ask in the wind, and you go towards his voice to find his sentry station. He looks at you with a surprised expression on his face. “what are you doing here?” He asks you as you climb inside of his sentry station next to him.

“I was looking for you.” You grumble softly, getting slightly warmer, though you’re unaware if it’s because you’re shielded from the harsh winds or because of both you and Sans’ body heat in such a small space. … Can skeletons have body heat? You don’t know, but you don’t particularly care either at the moment, and it’d probably be rude to ask.

“oh… yeah i’m sorry for running out on ya like that kid, just…” He chuckles suddenly. “got me scared to the bone, i guess.” This pun makes you laugh, quiet for a laugh though. “and i know you want me to explain everything n stuff, but… i dunno how to explain it to ya, kid. it’s complicated, and you wouldn’t believe me even if i told you.” He looks away from you and you frown.

“I’m not a kid, I’m 23. I’ve been raising Frisk nearly ever since their parents passed away, and now I’m in an underground world filled with monsters only a week ago I thought didn’t exist, and a skeleton made me spaghetti this morning. Any explanations to why Frisk, of all people, attacked me; I think I have an open mind to them.” You tell him, half serious and half light heartedly. He looks back over at you with his signature grin, though his eyes look like they’re piercing your very soul. He seems to be searching you, seeing if you’re trustworthy of his most precious secrets in life or not…

“… all right. i’ll tell you everything i know. it isn’t much, but…” You smile, relieved.

“Anything is better than nothing.” You assure him, and he slowly nods.

“right. well, before that, we should probably head back to papyrus and frisk.” He suggests, and you nod in agreement.

“Okay, you can tell me there.” You pull your hood back onto your head, as it had been pushed back by the winds, and you prepare to brave the snow storm (that is thankfully starting to die down) with Sans.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello my lovely readers! I hope you enjoyed the chapter, thank you so much for all your comments on the previous one! I'm not entirely sure when the next chapter will be up, as I want to try and get ahead in the chapters (I've been getting behind and most of this chapter I wrote today) but hopefully it won't be very long of a wait ^w^


	7. Friends

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sans tells you the truth and you... TRY to leave Snowdin.

What was he thinking? Sans bounced the idea of telling you everything back and forth in his skull as you both walk back to Snowdin. He would have teleported there, but he isn’t certain if he should let you know about his teleporting abilities yet, he isn’t even sure if he should tell you all the truth about the timelines, though… for some reason he believes that he can trust you. Maybe it’s because that he can put himself in your shoes, and he knows he’d do anything for Papyrus and he’d be worried out of his mind if anything was happening to Papyrus like whatever is happening to Frisk…

Much to his relief, you both got to Snowdin soon and you clambered into the warmth of the house. It was around noon, and Sans sees ______ look around for Papyrus and Frisk, who are no where to be found… Sans looks around as well, panicking for a few moments before you both hear laughter up in Papyrus’s room. Sans grins in relief, and plasters it to his face as he usually does. 

He sees you slowly make your way up the stairs and he follows you, going up next to you and knocking on his brother’s door. Papyrus swings it open with a grin. 

“SANS! HUMAN! WHERE HAVE YOU BEEN? YOUR SPAGHETTI GOT COLD SO YOU NEED TO PUT IT IN THE MICROWAVE. THE SMALL HUMAN AND I HAVE BEEN PLAYING BOARD GAMES WAITING FOR YOU!!” Papyrus goes inside his room and Sans sees Frisk sitting next to a board game on the ground of his room. Frisk looks up at him, with those brown eyes of theirs. … Sans grins and looks calm, laid back, as he usually does. And he is, for the most part, calm. Frisk doesn’t seem to be posing any immediate harm… for now… That’s a good thing… right?

 

~~~

 

The snow falls outside the window like a cool blanket of powdered sugar, instead of the harsh winds earlier that threw the snow like bullets at unsuspecting victims. The window that you’re watching from forms frost clouds on its surface, thinner than a piece of paper. It looks almost picturesque, but you’re slightly unable to enjoy the simplistic nature of it, as you’re anxious for Sans to tell you what you so desperately want to know. What it is you will learn from him, you’re unsure of, but any answer will relieve this ache of being in the dark about what’s happening to your little cousin. … Won’t it?

Papyrus has decided to play more games with Frisk in his room, so you went downstairs. Sans follows soon after, and you look over at him, with unmasked hope in your eyes that perhaps now he would come and talk to you. He sees the look in your eye, and casually walks over to you, sitting down on the other side of the couch and lounging back. He sighs, which makes you wonder if he actually needs to breathe.  
“what do you think about time travel?” Sans asks you, with the same tone one might do when asking about the weather. You think this is rather random and it disappoints you slightly, but you think about his question. 

“It’s an interesting theory. A lot of people like it back up on the surface.” 

“oh yeah? they don’t think it’s too time-consuming?” He grins over at you with that smile of his, and you chuckle softly. 

“I guess not.” 

“heh… well, that kind of has to do with what happened.” You furrow your brows and narrow your eyes in confusion.

“What do you mean?” 

“um… well… it’s complicated, but, Frisk’s been here before. a lot of times. they come and make their way through the underground, each time a different way in some way… then everything ‘resets’ and it starts all over again.” While Sans tells you this he looks over at you, looking at you with a mix of nervousness and that peculiar look he’s given you before, as if he’s trying to read you. You’re honestly not quite sure what to think… The notion that all of this has happened countless times before, everything, it’s outlandish but… then again, so was any of this in general. 

“… How many times?” You ask, finally, and he looks widely relieved. He relaxes a little bit more.

“i stopped counting.” You pause again, thinking, processing.

“So… I’ve been down here too, before?” Sans shakes his head quickly.

“no, you’ve never come down with them before.” You find this startling, and concerning. You frown deeply. Why hadn’t you been there the other times? Did you die in the fall down here? Were you never even in those timelines to begin with? What happened those countless times that prevented you from being by Frisk’s side? You highly doubted you would ever let Frisk go off by themselves without trying to do something about it… You wouldn’t leave them alone like that, to face the underground by themselves… Wait. 

“How does that explain why Frisk attacked me, or how their eyes turned red and they blamed it on someone named ‘Chara’?” Sans’ glowing white pinpricks look away from you towards the ground. Nervous again. 

“sometimes when frisk comes… they’re not themselves. they aren’t friendly.” You were afraid of this. Not… this, specifically, but something like it. You shakily sigh. 

“They attack everyone? They hurt people?” Sans clenches his mandible and is still looking away from you, but he nods. There’s a silent pause as you try and think about what to do now. There’s no telling how Frisk will be later on, you’ll have to keep a close eye on them. Whatever is happening to them… It hasn’t happened before. It’s either something like mental illness, or something to do with this place… “You’re the only one that knows about this?” You ask Sans, who still looks deeply troubled, but looks slightly surprised as you ask this. He looks over at you, and nods. You find this rather odd, that he’s the only one that knows about the time “resets”… But that also makes you think of something. “But Frisk’s not always like that. And they eventually make it out of here, right?” You have a tone of hopefulness in your voice. 

“sometimes… but every time it just resets again.” You’re starting to get frustrated and discouraged. There has to be a way out of this… You may not understand all of it and what it is, but there has to be something you can do. 

“How do they get out, when they do?” 

“… i think they kill asgore. i’m not sure, i’m never there, i just… assumed.” You sigh. 

“I have to get them back to the surface… They’re not safe here and I think whatever is happening to them is because of the Underground.” You look up at Sans. “If we get back up to the surface then I’ll try and find a way to free all of you down here. It was terrible what humans did back then and… There will probably still be problems on the surface if you’re able to be freed, but I think it would be better for all of you up there than stuck down here.” Sans looks over at you, silent for a few minutes. 

“you’re not patelling me a fibula, right?” His eyes sparkle and you grin back at him. 

“Course not.” 

“heh… good…” Sans looks back up at where Frisk and Papyrus are playing. “the underground is a big place, I’ll keep an eye socket out for you as you get to the core, that’s where asgore is.” 

“Thanks… So… is there a map I could use, or something like that? I don’t want to get lost.” 

“you won’t. just head out of snowdin, go through waterfall, then to the hotlands, and from there you should be all right. and if ya run into any trouble, i can give you my phone number.” You’re not quite sure why, but you feel a bit… nervously warm and happy at this? You hand Sans over your phone, dismissing the odd feelings. He puts in his phone number and hands it back to you. 

“Thanks.” He simply nods and then stands up, heading for the door. Before he goes out, he looks back up at Papyrus’s room. 

“keep an eye on them.” And with that, he left.

 

~~~

 

You decided it would be best to leave, however… you did not anticipate how Papyrus would take it. 

“LEAVE?! I’M AFRAID I CANNOT LET YOU DO THAT, HUMAN, FOR I THE GREAT PAPYRUS HAVE CAPTURED YOU! AND UNDYNE WILL BE HERE TOMORROW TO TAKE YOU TO THE CAPITAL!” You soften at the taller skeleton’s enthusiasm, but you realize that you really can’t stay, especially now with that… Undyne person coming. 

“I’m sorry Papyrus, we can’t stay.” You calmly tell him. He looks like if he could, he’d be frowning. 

“WELL… YOU’LL HAVE TO GET PASSED ME FIRST!” He runs out of the house and you look down at Frisk unsurely as they look back at you. You and Frisk go out to find him and you find him at the end of Snowdin passed Papyrus and San’s house. It’s foggy there, not really snowy, but thick fog. Just there…

“Papyrus?” Papyrus is standing in the fog, a vague outline with faded colors of his outfit and bones.

“HUMANS… ALLOW ME TO TELL YOU ABOUT SOME COMPLEX FEELINGS. FEELINGS LIKE… THE JOY OF FINDING ANOTHER PASTA LOVER. THE ADMIRATION FOR ANOTHER’S PUZZLE-SOLVING SKILLS. THE DESIRE TO HAVE A COOL, SMART PERSON THINK YOU ARE COOL. THESE FEELINGS… THEY MUST BE WHAT YOU BOTH ARE FEELING RIGHT NOW!” You quirk an eyebrow at him in amusement. “I CAN HARDLY IMAGINE WHAT IT MUST BE LIKE TO FEEL THAT WAY. AFTER ALL, I AM VERY GREAT. I DON’T EVER WONDER WHAT HAVING LOTS OF FRIENDS IS LIKE. I PITY YOU… LONELY HUMANS… WORRY NOT!! YOU SHALL BE LONELY NO LONGER! I, THE GREAT PAPYRUS, WILL BE YOUR…” Papyrus’s words falter and he turns from you and Frisk. 

“No… NO, THIS IS ALL WRONG! I CAN’T BE YOUR FRIEND! YOU’RE BOTH HUMAN! I MUST CAPTURE YOU!! THEN, I CAN FULFILL MY LIFELONG DREAM!! POWERFUL! POPULAR! PRESTIGIOUS!! THAT’S PAPYRUS!! THE NEWEST MEMBER… OF THE ROYAL GUARD!”

 

~~~

 

Sans walks towards the commotion, near the end of Snowdin and where you would enter Waterfall. He isn’t surprised in the least, as this has always happened, but he is more on edge than usual. He isn’t sure what will happen in the fight with his brother, considering that you wouldn’t fight him, but… he doesn’t know about Frisk. 

He watches the fight from a distance, from the trees. He could see you in front of Frisk as Papyrus turns your heart to blue. Sans is relieved to see that he’s only battling you and not Frisk as well, as he begins using his attacks. You jump over most of the bones, though you trip on some and your HP goes down a bit. Sans doesn’t worry because he knows that his brother wouldn’t kill you. Frisk watches the fight and Sans watches as well, though he is also watching Frisk to make sure they don’t do… anything. 

You begin to start to “flirt” with Papyrus, and it makes Sans chuckle a little bit. You praise him and try to boost his ego so that he’ll be more lenient on letting you and Frisk leave to Waterfall. You blush and look quite awkward when Papyrus mistakes the compliments, meant to be platonic, as romantic. Sans feels a little bit weird, watching you all flustered. He’s confused by it, but dismisses it all the same.  
The fight continues and Sans watches as Papyrus riles up his very last attack, which you jump over the best that you can. At the very end of it, Sans makes his magic hum to life as he helps you jump over the very last, considerably larger bone. You feel like you’re flying, but at the same time being held… At the very end of the fight, Papyrus “admits defeat” in his own way. Sans can see the look of sympathy in your face when Papyrus says what he says, about having no friends…

“I thought we were already friends, Papyrus.” Sans hears you say, from his place in the trees. It brings a smile to his face… which only gets bigger when he sees the grin on his brother's face, innocent. Pure. ... alive. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi guys!! I am SO sorry for not posting sooner, I've been terribly busy with family and school. I'm not stopping writing though and I will try and post as often as I finish chapters. Thank you for being patient!


	8. Familiar Names

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Gaster?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It's been quite a long time since I've updated this story, and I must apologize for the wait. A lot of stuff happened that either prevented me from writing, made me lose my motivation, or distracted me. Thankfully I've gotten in a more motivated place and I've found the time to continue and hopefully finish this story.
> 
> Thank you so so much for reading, I hope you like it!

You are beyond relieved when you can convince Papyrus to go on a playdate with Frisk instead of an actual date with yourself. No offense to Papyrus, of course, but he seems far to innocent and sweet for you to go on a date with him. Though, this also meant that you would have to put off leaving to Waterfall for yet another day and you would have to leave very early in the morning so as to not run into Undyne.  
You sit on the lumpy couch you’ve strangely got accustomed to, as Papyrus and Frisk walk inside too. Papyrus grins as he sits down on the couch next to you and places Frisk on the other side of himself. 

“WOULD YOU LIKE TO WATCH SOME TELEVISION, HUMANS?” Papyrus asks, picking up the TV remote. Frisk shrugs with a content smile and you shrug as well. 

“Sure.” 

“OKAY!” Papyrus turns on the television and it turns to static. Your once cheery demeanor fades as this… static… it fills you with an ominous familiarity—

“OOh, yes!!” You are taken out of your thoughts when the static turns into a burst of color and noise. A rectangular robot appears on stage, with a deep voice similar to that of Tim Curry, but much younger and electronic. He seems to be… cooking? 

“… Who’s that?” You ask, quite confused. 

“THAT IS METTATON! HE’S OUR TV CELEBRITY IN THE UNDERGROUND.” Papyrus explains, and you look back at the metal rectangle who looks as if he is making some cupcakes. 

“… All right.”

 

~~~

 

Sans grins casually as he walks back to his house after going to Grillby’s. Night for the Underground has almost fallen, just a glimmer of magical synthetic light is glittering in the cave walls that surround them in all directions. He looks through the window that looks into the living room and stops a little bit, when he sees Papyrus and Frisk zonked out on the couch and you’re… Cleaning? He sees you washing dishes in the kitchen, but he also notices some things that had been strewn about the living room (all his) are now in neat piles by his bedroom door. He’s surprised, and feels that weird… feeling again. He passes it off as just an effect of not expecting you to clean up the house and he goes to the front door. 

You turn to see who it is when he opens the door and he offers a friendly grin. You smile back, but he notices it’s not completely sincere. Something’s bothering ya. Which, all things considered, isn’t surprising at all. He goes over to you, still in a laid back sense and he leans up against the wall. 

“you cleaned up?” 

“Huh? Oh, yeah… figured was the least I could do, since you guys let us stay here.” You explain, even though it’s only partially the truth. You’re anxious, and worrying. Cleaning was just a way to distract yourself… 

“oh… thanks. you doing all right there, bud?” He asks, as if he can see right through you. Maybe he could. 

“Yeah, I’m doing fine.” You clean the last of the plates and sigh softly. No more distractions… You’re not quite sure what to do with yourself. Sans can see it. 

“they fell asleep, huh?” Sans mentions, looking over to Papyrus and Frisk. Papyrus snores softly, which is slightly baffling to you considering he doesn’t have lungs or a throat… 

“Yeah, while watching Mettaton.” Sans chuckles at this. 

“guess they hit his snooze button.” You smile at the joke, but it doesn’t quell the anxiousness you have. “they must’ve worn themselves out a mettaTON.” Sans jokes with a trying grin. You chuckle, but…

“How dangerous is the Underground, exactly? Papyrus talked about this… Undyne, and I’m just kind of worried.” You admit, and Sans now understands. 

“don’t worry pal, it’ll work out. and i told ya i’d keep an eye-socket out for you.” Sans tries to reassure you. 

“Yeah… I suppose so…” You sigh. “I’m going to go to sleep too, busy day tomorrow.” You say, and you head to the couch but realize that there isn’t enough room with Papyrus and Frisk sleeping there… “Um, do you have any blankets I could use, to sleep on the floor…?” You ask Sans meekly. 

“oh, um, sure.” He goes upstairs and you wait for him downstairs. … After a few minutes— “this should cover it.” Sans appears right next to you, making you jump away from him with a small squeak. This makes him smirk with that grin of his, partially because of you and partially because of his pun. “scare ya?” You compose yourself. 

“… No.” You take the blankets from him. “Thanks.” 

“no problem.” He begins to head back upstairs. 

“… Good night.”

 

~~~

 

Again… Again this ominous feeling inside of you wells up as you hear the fuzzy static like last time you dreamt. You’re confused, again. You’ve never had a repeating dream before, or if you have then you are not recalling it at the moment… Except this one. 

You’re now in the room like before, skipping the marsh that you had started in last time. And… the skeleton… it’s in front of you again. It seems pleased to see you, but then again with all this hazy static it’s kind of hard to tell. He looks… tired… He moves his hands and you focus your attention on them as he signs. This familiar movement that you’ve done with Frisk so often puts you at ease somewhat as you read his hands, with those holes in the palms… His motions glitch sometimes as he signs. 

_“My name… is Gaster.”_

“O… Okay…” 

_“You must… Understand. This is not a dream.”_ You furrow your eyebrows together, in confusion. Your fear rises up in your chests. 

“What do you mean…?” 

_“I must… Communicate to you, while you… are unconscious. But it is not a dream.”_ He pauses and lets you process this information. You try to wrap your head around it but it’s such a strange concept… and so hard to believe that he’s real, in front of you, somehow talking to you in your dream state. Yet you’re at least half able to accept this, because of the sheer vividness of it. Also considering that you already accepted that something time-travel related was going on in the conscious world, you're not even sure why you accepted that concept so easily…

“Why are you.. talking to me, through my dreams?” You ask, finally. 

_“I must tell you… Do not make the same mistakes that you made the last time.”_

“Last time?” What did he mean by last time? You worry. 

_“I feared… you wouldn’t remember… do not worry, child, I will help you… all that I can.”_

“But wait, what do you mean?” You ask, had you been in one of the previous timelines and just not remembered? But if so, then why, and why didn’t Sans remember? 

_“Do not… sa-…”_ Your vision became too hazy, you can’t see what he’s signing. 

“I can’t see you. Gaster, what are you saying?” You ask with urgency. You’re worried, confused, and… awake. You open your eyes to see Frisk in front of you, with an adorable, concerned expression on their little face. They sign to you. 

_“You were mumbling things in your sleep..”_ They explain.

“Oh… sorry if I woke you up…” You groan and get up, your head is throbbing and you hold it in your hand. 

“you all right, kid?” You look up and see Sans walking down the stairs wearing a baggy shirt (adorned with a couple of old ketchup stains) and basketball shorts, obviously having just woken up. The absence of loud talking must mean that Papyrus hasn’t even woken up yet. “frisk woke me up, they seemed worried about you.” Sans walks over, rubbing the sleep out of his eye sockets.

“I’m okay, was just talking in my sleep apparently… thanks though. We should probably get going soon anyway before Undyne comes and takes us.” You try to stand up, though your head is still aching and it gets dizzy from it so you immediately sit back down and put a hand on your head as if that will help it somehow. 

“you sure you’re all right?” Sans leans over and moves your hand, putting a bony hand up against your forehead to feel your head’s temperature. If you weren’t warm before, you might be now from his actions. Then, Frisk gets your attention by tugging on your shirt, you look down at them and they sign to you. 

_“Who’s Gaster?”_ You hadn’t remembered it all completely, your dream, but Frisk mentioning the person’s name from your dream makes it all come back to you. Still, all you do is stare at Frisk, not sure how to respond. How do you explain the dreams you’ve had? You aren’t even sure if they’re actually something you should take seriously or just a dismissible side effect from the shock your brain is in from being thrown into a whole new world. 

“wh-where did you hear that name?” You suddenly hear Sans shakily ask. His voice seems on the verge of either screaming or crying and you look up at him, confused and concerned for him. 

“You know that name?” You ask, and he looks down at you. His pinpricks of light in his eyes are visibly shaking. 

“h-how do you know that name?” He asks once again.

“I.. I dreamed about someone with that name. That must have been what I was mumbling, I was trying to talk to him in my dream…” You explain, your tone voicing your wary concern.

“what did he look like? was he a skeleton? did he have holes in his hands?” You scrunch your eyebrows up, perplexed.

“How did you.. know that…” Sans stares at you for a few moments more, his breathing heavy, before he stumbles back. He bolts for the door, grabbing his blue hoody right before running outside, leaving the door swinging on its hinges. You move to stand up and go after him, your head feeling slightly better, but when you woozily walk over to the door as quick as you can and look around for him you see he’s nowhere to be seen. “Sans!?” You call out, but to no avail. He’s gone, leaving you wondering… why?

 

~~~

 

If Sans had lungs they would be stinging, but instead he feels the sting of the cold wind on his ribs as he runs clumsily to the back of the house, unlocking the door and almost tripping down the stairs to the hidden basement room that even his brother didn’t know about. He paused to catch his breath one he got inside and flicked on the lights that buzzed with electricity, flickering from not being used. He walked over to the curtained contraption on the other end of the room slowly, standing in front of it, staring… before he reaches out to his side and pulls open the drawer, reaching inside for a photograph taken with an old polaroid. 

W.D Gaster was in the middle, surrounded by his colleagues. Wearing his signature black coat and white sweater-vest underneath. His face wasn’t cracked yet in that photo but the holes in his hands were clearly shown. Sans must have been just five or six years old when that picture was taken, Papyrus just a baby hardly crawling. Ten or so years before Gaster… 

Sans sighs shakily and sits down on the ground, the photo still in hand. How did you know about him…? Through your dreams? But if that’s the case, maybe he’s still… improbable, but so was a time loop and here we are. Sans isn’t sure what to do now, should he tell you everything about what happened with Gaster? He did tell you about the time loop, and Frisk, and you seemed to believe him. Surprisingly… but still, Gaster was years before the time loop started, it can’t have anything to do with it, right…? 

Gaster was like a father to Sans and Papyrus, and in some aspects he really was. Biologically they did share his DNA and magic, even if they weren’t made like other monsters are… Sans stays there, collecting his thoughts. He needs to know more about how you know Gaster, if these dreams are actually anything important or if somehow you know about Gaster from somewhere… Grillby maybe? No, Grillby doesn’t talk hardly ever, and would never talk about Gaster to anyone but Sans or Papyrus. And his brother hasn’t mentioned Gaster’s name since… he doesn’t even recall the last time he talked with his brother about their father. So it must be the dream. But how…? He knows his father was working on something to do with time and dimensional theories, but nowhere in the research he’s scavenged has he come across anything to suggest any of it was actually successful, and he disappeared years before the time loop actually occurred. Then again… he never did know what happened exactly to Gaster. No one really knows, only that he disappeared without a trace and was presumed dead. 

Sans makes a noise that is a mix between a groan and a growl as he pushes himself up to his feet. He needs to talk to you, especially considered he kind of left you in the dust back there as he had a mental panic attack. He walks back to the front of the house to find Papyrus outside looking around.

“hey pap, what are you doing?”

“OH THERE YOU ARE SANS! WHERE HAVE YOU BEEN? I’VE BEEN LOOKING FOR YOU AND THE HUMANS ALL MORNING!” Papyrus exclaims, as usual.

“it just turned eight, pap. wait… frisk and ______ are gone?”


End file.
